Pattern of Ocular Morbidity in Patients Attending Urban Specialist Eye Clinic in South East, Nigeria

Background: The pattern of eye diseases varies across the world. Racial, ethnic, socio-cultural and socio-demographic characteristics are known to exert some influence on the pattern of these eye diseases. Knowledge of these patterns is important in planning for adequate eye care services.

Aim: To determine the pattern of ocular morbidity in an urban Specialist Eye Clinic in Awka, South-East Nigeria.

Setting and Design: A two-year descriptive retrospective study of patients seen in an urban Specialist Eye Clinic in South-East Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: The needed information, which included socio-demographics and diagnosis, were extracted from patients’ case files and entered into a proforma. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Ninety five percent Confidence Interval was given for percentages and p ≤ .05 was accepted as statistically significant.

Results: Five hundred and twenty seven patients comprising 277 (52.6%) females and 250 (47.4%) males with a mean age of 43.2 ± 21.7 years seen within the two year period were reviewed. Refractive error, glaucoma, allergic eye diseases, and cataract in that order were the commonest ocular morbidities in these patients. Spherical errors were commoner than cylindrical errors. Hypermetropia was the commonest refractive error while hypermetropic astigmatism was the commonest astigmatic error. All the refractive errors were commoner in females than in males. Although 185 (35.1%) patients were presbyopic on clinical examination, only 41(7.7%) patients had presbyopia as their main diagnosis.

Conclusion: Most of the common reasons for ophthalmic consultations were refractive error, glaucoma, allergic eye diseases, and cataract. Adequate provision for the management of these conditions will help in reducing the burden of visual impairment and blindness.