Prevalence of blindness and visual impairment in Atakunmosa West Local Government Area of southwestern Nigeria

Blindness survey remains a useful tool for eye care needs assessment. A cross sectional survey of Atakunmosa West Local Government Area, a rural community of southwest Nigeria with no form of eye care facility was carried out. The objective of this study was to deﬁne areas of eye care need and develop programme for elimination of avoidable blindness in the region. Multistage cluster sampling technique selected 1,248 respondents across all the eleven health districts. Respondents had visual acuity and ocular examination. Blindness was deﬁned as presenting visual acuity (pva) of <3/60 in the better eye and visual impairment as pva of <6/18 in the better eye. Out of the 1,248 respondents screened, 14 (1.1%) were blind and 78 (6.3%) were visually impaired. There was an increasing risk of blindness and visual impairment with age; occurring more commonly after 60 years of age. The prevalence of blindness and visual impairment were higher in females although not statistically signiﬁcant (P= 0.70; 0.46 respectively). Blindness was caused mainly by cataract (57.2%), glaucoma (14.3%) and congenital childhood blindness (14.3%). Cataract (57.7%), glaucoma (16.7%) and uncorrected refractive error (15.4%) were the leading causes of visual impairment. Blindness was avoidable in 85.7% of cases. Qualitative and subsidised cataract surgical and refractive services are needed urgently in this region and therefore, the incorporation of eye health care into the existing primary health care system may ensure programme sustainability.