Pattern of eye diseases among patients presenting to a University Health Service

Abstract

Background: To determine the pattern of eye diseases among patients attending the Eye Clinic of the University of Jos Health Centre.

Methods: A retrospective study of all patients presenting to the eye clinic of the University of Jos Health Services between March, 2019 to March, 2020 was done. Consecutive patients who visited the eye clinic were first seen by a nurse who collected biodata and tested the visual acuity. Distance visual acuity was tested at a distance of 6m in day light using Snellen’s chart for literate and E chart for illiterate patients and near visual acuity was tested at a distance of 33cm. Those with distance visual acuity of worse than 6/6 had refraction done by the optometrist and the best corrected visual acuity recorded. Detailed ocular examination was performed by the Ophthalmologist using pen torch and direct Ophthalmoscope. Data was analyzed sing SPSS version 20.

Results: A total of 531 patients were seen during the study period comprising of 241 (45.4%) males and 290(54.6%) females with a male to female ratio of 1:1.2. The mean age of the study participants was 32years (SD ±15). About 10.5% of the study participants had normal ocular examination findings, while 89.5% had at least one eye problem. The commonest ocular morbidities were allergic conjunctivitis 29%, refractive error 22.8%, presbyopia 16.6%, infective conjunctivitis 4.9%, cataract (3.8%) and Glaucoma (15%).

Conclusion: Eye disease constitute one of the presentation of patients attending the university health services. Therefore the need for man power and infrastructural development cannot be over emphasized as good vision would improve the quality of services rendered by staffs and academic performance of the students..