Awareness and risk burden of glaucoma among adults in selected rural and urban communities of Kwara State, North – Central Nigeria

Abstract

Glaucoma-related blindness constitutes a major public health problem. In addition to the high risk burden, inadequate awareness and late diagnosis have been attributed as the major causes of blindness in glaucoma. This study aimed to assess and compare the awareness and risk burden of glaucoma among adults in selected rural and urban communities of Kwara State, Nigeria.

This study was a cross-sectional comparative study. The respondents were selected through multi-stage sampling technique.  Interviewer- administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analysed using SPSS version 15. Level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05.

Less than a quarter, 109 (24.2%), of the rural respondents are aware of glaucoma compared with almost half, 212 (46.1%) of the urban respondents (p<0.001). More than three-quarters, 187 (88.2%), of the urban respondents in the age group 40-59 years had awareness of glaucoma compared with older respondents (p<0.05).There were more hypertensive subjects in the urban compared with the rural areas (OR=0.2; 95%CI=0.14-0.26; p<0.001). More than three quarters, 339 (75.3%), of the rural respondents had complete eye exam more than two years ago compared with the urban respondents (OR=2.7; 95%CI=2.0-3.6; p<0.001).

Inadequate awareness and high risk burden of glaucoma have been demonstrated among the respondents in both rural and urban communities in this study. This gap is inimical to the efforts towards reduction of burden of glaucoma-related blindness. There is need for the Government to scale-up efforts at increasing the awareness of the public and institute measures to reduce risk burden of glaucoma.

Keywords: Glaucoma, awareness, risk burden, Nigeria