Epidemiology of Ocular Morbidities in Rural Ponda Taluka, Goa

Abstract

Introduction: Ocular morbidity is among the most under-reported public health problems in the developing world. The estimated number of visually impaired people in the world is around 1.3 billion. India has around 8 million blind and 62 million visually impaired individuals. There are several published studies describing the profile of ocular morbidities in rural areas across India, however such studies on ocular morbidities in rural Goa are rare. The present study was undertaken to generate evidence on this important public health problem.

Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted between March to August 2018, after Institutional Ethics Committee approval. The study population included patients from the villages of Ponda Taluka, Goa; who reported to outreach camps. Informed consent was obtained. The data so obtained was entered into structured proformas. The data included socio-demographic details, history regarding any ocular complaints and a detailed ophthalmic examination.

The data was entered in Microsoft Excel 2010 version and statistical analysis was performed using Simple percentages and proportions.

Result: out of the 120 patients that were studied, 51.67% were aged between 60-80 years, 70% were males, and 61.67% were illiterate. 78.33% participants had refractive errors, 45.33% had cataract, 5.83% had glaucoma, 3.34% had retinal affection and 3.33% had corneal opacities.

Conclusion: Refractive errors were noted in majority of our study participants; followed by cataract, glaucoma, corneal opacities and others. A high percentage of patients with cataract and corneal opacities were probably due to low socio-economic background, illiteracy leading to a lack of awareness about common ocular problems and their treatable nature.