Prevalence of visual impairment among patients attending the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State, Nigeria

Visual impairment, also known as loss of vision is the decreased ability of a subject to see to a degree. It is a global concern that is likely to escalate with prolonged life expectancies with increasing attention in the realm of eye care. In this study, the prevalence of visual impairment among patients attending the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers state, Nigeria was investigated. The study accessed a total of 7, 345 case notes of ethically sourced, visually impaired subjects who visited the hospital within five years (2015 - 2019) in the target study area. For each year accessed, records were grouped according to participants’ age and gender, then matched with the type and causes of visual impairment in the study area. At the end of data collection, Results were passed through the graph pad prism (version 8.1), and subjected to statistical measure of central tendencies to obtain the average records and prevalence levels for collected variables, while setting confidence interval at a 95%. Differences in means across groups were also confirmed with the One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), while setting a p value less than 0.05 as statistically significant. Following analysis, study found a statistically significant increase (p < 0.05) in cases of visual impairment for 2019 as compared other year records, even though there was an inconsistent attenuation for the various years compared, with moderate vision having an apparently higher record than other visual impairments. Severe cases came second with 2018 having the highest cases than others but, with moderate impediments. Also, a significant increase (p < 0.05) was seen in refractive error as compared to other causes of visual impediments. We recommend similar but more molecular approach to visual impairments within study area, and more.