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Published:
Dec 19, 2022Keywords:
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Preference for low vision aids in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital
Abstract
Purpose: To determine the proportion of patients who would benefit from low vision aids and their preferences for these devices in the eye clinic of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Ituku-Ozalla, Nigeria
Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study of all new consecutive low vision patients seen at the hospital within the study duration of 12 months. All patients with low vision were evaluated by the researcher and the findings entered on a research protocol. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to generate frequency and percentage distributions. Analytical statistics was employed to test for significance of observed inter-group differences. Statistical significance was indicated by p < 0.05.
Results: A total of 197 patients were seen comprising of 120 males and 77 females (M: F = 1.6:1), mean age was 39.3 ± 22.9 SD years. From the study, 114 (57.9%) of the patients would benefit from optical low vision aids while 83 (42.1%) would benefit from non-optical low vision devices. In the group that had improvement with optical aids, 38.2 % required only telescopes, 14.5% benefited from magnifiers alone, and 32.8% required both telescopes and magnifiers. The remainder, 14.5%, required both optical and non optical devices like face caps, antiglare glasses, and table lamps.
Majority of patients who preferred magnifiers wanted either spectacle borne (41.4%) or handheld (39.0%). Most of the patients who chose telescopes wanted spectacle borne (71.4%).
Conclusion: Majority of patients in this survey preferred either spectacle borne magnifiers or telescopes.
