Abstract
Purpose: :
Glaucoma is the commonest cause of irreversible blindness in Nigeria. The prevalence of glaucoma and its morbidity is highest in West Africa. We evaluated the relevance of community outreach program in early detection of glaucoma patients in South West Nigeria.
Methods: :
This is a retrospective, cross- sectional study with descriptive and analytical components. This study was conducted among glaucoma patients, referred to the eye clinic of the University College Hospital (UCH) between January 2009 and December 2010 (2 year period) from different sources including the community eye outreach. The source of referral, and the stage of glaucoma based on dilated examination of the optic nerve head using the 78D lens, and central visual field (24-2) using the Humphreys visual field machine was recorded.
Results: :
A total of 653 patients were studied during this period. The mean age was 56.3 ± 16.6 and a median age of 60. Patients referred from the outreach were about 1.5 times more likely to have mild to moderate disease than patients referred from other sources using both the optic nerve head assessment {P<0.01, Pearson chi square =10.67, OR=1.68 (CI= 1.23-2.31)},and the central visual field assessment {P<0.01, Pearson chi square = 6.07, OR= 1.48 (CI=1.08-2.03)}.
Conclusions: :
Community eye outreach model may be helpful in the early detection of glaucoma in developing countries.
Keywords: optic nerve • visual fields