Abstract:
Purpose: To determine the prevalence of visual impairment attributable to refractive error and
other causes in a youthful Ghanaian population.
Methods: A prospective survey of all consecutive visits by first-year tertiary students to the
Optometry clinic between August, 2013 and April, 2014. Of the 4378 first-year students aged
16---39 years enumerated, 3437 (78.5%) underwent the eye examination. The examination pro-
tocol included presenting visual acuity (PVA), ocular motility, and slit-lamp examination of the
external eye, anterior segment and media, and non-dilated fundus examination. Pinhole acuity
and fundus examination were performed when the PVA ≤ 6/12 in one or both eyes to determine
the principal cause of the vision loss.
Results: The mean age of participants was 21.86 years (95% CI: 21.72---21.99). The prevalence of
bilateral visual impairment (BVI; PVA in the better eye ≤6/12) and unilateral visual impairment
UVI; PVA in the worse eye ≤6/12) were 3.08% (95% CI: 2.56---3.72) and 0.79% (95% CI: 0.54---1.14),
respectively. Among 106 participants with BVI, refractive error (96.2%) and corneal opacity
(3.8%) were the causes. Of the 27 participants with UVI, refractive error (44.4%), maculopathy
(18.5%) and retinal disease (14.8%) were the major causes. There was unequal distribution of
BVI in the different age groups, with those above 20 years having a lesser burden.
Conclusion: Eye screening and provision of affordable spectacle correction to the youth could
be timely to eliminate visual impairment.
