Prevalence and associated factors of low vision and blindness among patients attending St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Low vision and blindness are major public health problems. A vast burden of worlds visually impaired live in low-income settings especially in sub Saharan Africa. In such settings the blindness is associated with considerable disability and excess mortality, resulting in huge economic and social consequence. The main purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated factors of low vision and blindness among patients at St. Paul’s hospital millenium medical college. METHODS: Institution based cross sectional design study was carried out from January to April, 2017 with sample size of 904. Systematic random sampling was used to recruit the study subjects. Retrospective medical chart review was done; data was entered into and analyzed by SPSS 23. Descriptive statistics such as frequency cross tabulation and chi-square test was carried out to translate data into information. P-value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 881 subjects with a response rate of 97.4% selected. The mean age of the study subjects was 44.53(SD: ± 21.85) with a range of 1–100 years. The prevalence of low vision and blindness was 91 (10.3% (95% CI: 8.2, 12.3)), and 64 (7.3 95%CI: 5.7, 9.0)) respectively. Age (p-value < 0.001), cataract (p-value = 0.002), glaucoma (p-value = 0.002) and age related macular degeneration (p-value < 0.001) were significantly associated with low vision and blindness. CONCLUSION: Low vision and blindness found in this study was high. Age, cataract, glaucoma and age related macular degeneration were significantly associated with low vision and blindness. This amount of magnitude will be reduced if prevention, early diagnosis and management will be targeted towards avoidable causes of visual impairment.