Disability and its Predictors among Glaucoma Patients in a Nigeria City

Abstract

This study estimates disability and its predictors among adult Nigerians with glaucoma. Cross-sectional design, recruiting consecutive glaucoma patients attending a glaucoma clinic. Disability was assessed using WHO Disability Assessment Schedule. Poisson regression was used to assess predicting factors. 123 (male 70, 56.9%) glaucoma patients with mean age 62.8±15.1 years participated in the study. Mild to moderate disability was reported (108, 87.8%) with overall level of 18 and 56% reported moderate/severe degree of their disability. This was high in mobility and life activities domains such as walking outside home and community participation. Sex, marital status, religion, age, left intraocular pressure and diastolic blood pressure significantly predicted disability. Male participants compared with females and participants who professed belief in Christianity/Islam compared with traditional belief were 14% and 50% respectively less likely to report disability. The singles were 4 times more likely to report disability compared with widow/widower. Participants with less than tertiary education were more likely to be 34% disabled. With increase in age, the participants were more likely to be 0.02% disabled and with a decrease in diastolic blood pressure, there is 0.6% decrease in disability. In conclusion, moderate disability was reported especially in mobility and participation domains with 56% expressing moderate/severe degree of it. Older age impact upon disability and is a good predictor of it whereas being religious is less so.

Keywords: Glaucoma, Disability, Prevalence, Predictor, Nigeria