Prevalence and Causes of Visual Impairment in an Area of Western Uttar Pradesh

It has been recently estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) that there are 285 million visually impaired people worldwide, among whom 39 million are blind.

To study Prevalence and causes of visual impairment in an area of western Uttar Pradesh.

This was cross-sectional study in the 3217Patients attending eye OPD in Saraswathi Institute of ophthalmology Hapur from Jan2018 to October 2018. Patients above 30 years of age were enrolled for study.2234 patients fit the inclusion criteria.2016 participated in study. Detailed ocular examination was done. visual impairment was defined as visual acuity less than 6/18 in better eye. The details of patients and all routine investigations were carried out. The causes of visual impairment were found out. Data entered to excel sheet and analyzed by Excel software for windows 10.

In our study we have seen that the majority of the patients were in the age group of 60–70 (39.14%), followed by 50–60 in 28.42%, 40–50 were 12.40%, >70 were 11.66%, 30–40 were 8.38%. The majority of the patients were Male i.e. 55.85% and Female were 44.15% Out of 2016 patients 665 i.e. 33% were having visual impairment. The most common cases were Cataract-39%; Uncorrected refractive errors-21%; Retinal diseases like diabetic retinopathy and age related macular degeneration-13%; Trauma-9%; Glaucoma-8%; Iridocyclitis-6%; Corneal opacity-4%.

It can be concluded from our study that majority of the patients were in the age group of 60 70, the majority of the patients were Male. The prevalence of VI was 33% and most common causes were Cataract, Uncorrected, refractive errors, Retinal diseases, Trauma, Glaucoma, Iridocyclitis, Corneal opacity.