AWARENESS OF GLAUCOMA AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG ADULT COMMUNITY RESIDING IN DIRE DAWA TOWN, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Abstract Background: Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world, accounting for 15% of blindness in Africa. Up to 50% of glaucoma patients are already blind in one eye at first presentation mainly due to lack sufficient understanding to seek care early. Awareness about its nature and risk factors is known to affect the behavior for seeking intervention. However, little is known about level of awareness of glaucoma and associated factors in low-income countries like Ethiopia. Objective: the aim of this study was to assess level of awareness of glaucoma and associated factors among adult community residing in Dire Dawa town from March, 20 -30/2017 GC. Methods and materials: A cross-sectional community based study design was used among adult community member residing in Dire Dawa town. Data on demographics, awareness of glaucoma were gathered using pretested structured questionnaires to interview a random sample of 844 study units. Statistical analyses were performed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences 16 (SPSS Inc. 2007) software. Chi-square test was used to assess the strength of the association between categorical variables. Results are presented as frequency distributions and proportions. Level of statistical significance was declared at P < 0.05. Result: A total of 839 study participants participated in this study making a response rate of 99.4%. The mean (±SD) age of the participants was 50.9 ±7.671 years. The majority of them 459 (54.7%), were male. 318(37.9%) had no formal education. Among the total participants, 37 (4.4%) have heard of the term glaucoma. Only 8 (3.2%) of the total participants had good awareness about glaucoma and only (0.2%) were aware that glaucoma cause irreversible blindness. The awareness of glaucoma was significantly associated with higher level of education, and economic status. Conclusion: levels of awareness about glaucoma were low in our population. Study participants with lower levels of education and income were less aware about glaucoma than their counterparts. The study findings stress the need for health education to effectively prevent blindness due to glaucoma