Purpose
To improve health services it is necessary to know the demand profile. This study was carried out with the 2 objectives: to identify the main reasons to seek an ophthalmologic public care service in Brazil (SUS - Brazilian National Health Care System) and to analyze the frequency of the principal diagnoses, aiming to achieve goals of loss in eyesight prevention.
Methods
This is an observational, retrospective, cross study conducted from March to August 2012, at the Instituto de Olhos de Goiânia (Goiânia Eye Institute), analyzing 1670 patients, therefore representing a good share of the Goiás State and Mid-Western Brazilian region. The data were obtained through the analysis of the medical records with the ICD-10 registration. The studied variables were age and sex of patient, origin, eye discomfort complaints, comorbidities and diagnosis (ICD-10).
Results
The ages ranged from 0 to 99 years and the mean age was 56.9 years. There was a predominance of females (58.1%) and the main origin of patients was Goiânia (61.5%) against 38.5% from interior. It was detected a prevalence of 45.9% of patients with a history of Systemic Arterial Hypertension, 16.8% of Diabetes Mellitus and 5% of glaucoma. The main reason for the consultation was low visual acuity (70%), followed by burning (26%) and itchiness (24.4%), as shown in Figure 1. Among the abnormal tests there was a high prevalence of refractive errors (73.4%) and presbyopia (59.6%). The cause of refractive errors was astigmatism (70.5%), hypertrophy (58.6%) and myopia (15.1%). Table 2 shows other main diagnosis results.
Conclusions
The consequences of blindness are becoming an important issue in public health. Primary care professionals play a relevant role in prevention and control of ocular disabilities in their communities. Understanding the main complaints and common eyesight health problems in a particular region can help better manage the public resources and make a better planning for strategic action aiming to reduce and control visual impairment and blindness.
Keywords: 459 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: biostatistics/epidemiology methodology •
463 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence •
754 visual acuity