scholarly journals Availability of low vision services and barriers to their provision and uptake in Ghana: practitioners’ perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 896-903
Author(s):  
Sylvester Kyeremeh ◽  
Khathutshelo P Mashige

Background: Provision and uptake of low vision services are essential. Objective: To assess the availability of low vision services and barriers to their provision and uptake in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions of Ghana from the perspective of eye care practitioners. Methods: A descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study design using semi-structured questionnaires was used to collect information from eye care practitioners selected from 58 eye care facilities in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions of Ghana. Results: Forty-four eye care practitioners from Ashanti region and 10 from Brong Ahafo region responded to the question- naire. Seventeen (34%) of the 50 eye care facilities who reported having patients seeking low vision services in their facilities provided such services. Lack of low vision devices (94.4%) and equipment (87%) were reported to be the main barriers to the provision of low vision services. Major barriers to low vision services uptake were lack of awareness (88.7%), high cost (70.4%) and social unacceptability of low vision assistive devices (59.3%). Conclusion: Lack of adequate low vision services and barriers to their provision and uptake impact negatively on efforts to prevent visual impairment and blindness in Ghana. Keywords: Low vision services; provision; barriers.

Author(s):  
Sanjeev K. Gupta ◽  
Anshuman Sharma ◽  
Sanjay Agarwal ◽  
Sanjay Gupta ◽  
Shalini Sarouthia

Background: Visual impairment i.e. diabetic retinopathy is the one of most common manifestation of diabetes mellitus. Globally it is becoming an increasing public health problem especially in the developing countries because of increase in number of diabetic patients.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in the vicinity of Urban Heath and Training Centre (UHTC), Peoples University, Bhopal over a period of 6 months through screening in camps held, which included a total of 840 participants (aged ≥25 years) by following simple random procedure and in those who had newly diagnosed or long standing diabetes were referred to ophthalmologist for further evaluation. Retinopathy was determined by ophthalmoscopy and fundus photography. Anthropometric measurements (BMI), glycosylated haemoglobin were also evaluated among the confirmed diabetic patients in the study.Results: An increased prevalence of diabetes (5.95%) and retinopathy (28%) (95% CI 11.2-32.0) was found. In all age groups prevalence of bilateral blindness, bilateral low vision, unilateral blindness and unilateral low vision were respectively 2%, 28%, 0%, 70%. Independent risk indicators for the occurrence of diabetes such as age, BMI, HbA1c, were found significant for the occurrence of retinopathy in the study population.Conclusions: Visual impairment due to diabetic retinopathy remains an important public health problem in people with diabetes so timely interventions are required to resolve this major issue.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. e046638
Author(s):  
Sk Masum Billah ◽  
Abdullah Nurus Salam Khan ◽  
S M Rokonuzzaman ◽  
Nafisa Lira Huq ◽  
Marufa Aziz Khan ◽  
...  

Study objectiveTo evaluate the competency of trained health workers in detecting and managing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy during routine antenatal check-ups (ANCs) at primary care facilities in Bangladesh.Study design and settingsCross-sectional study; conducted in 26 primary care facilities.Outcome measuresAccurate diagnosis of the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.MethodIn total 1560 ANC consultations provided by primary health workers, known as Family Welfare Visitors (FWVs), were observed using a structured checklist between October 2017 and February 2018. All consultations were reassessed by study physicians for validation.ResultOf the ‘true’ cases of gestational hypertension (n=32), pre-eclampsia (n=29) and severe pre-eclampsia (n=16), only 3%, 7% and 25%, respectively, were correctly diagnosed by FWVs. Per cent agreement for the diagnosed cases of any hypertensive disorders of pregnancy was 9% and kappa statistics was 0.50 (p value 0.0125). For identification of any hypertensive disorders by FWVs, sensitivity and positive predictive values were 14% and 50%, respectively. There was a moderate positive correlation between the blood pressure measurements taken by FWVs and study physicians. Only 27% of those who had ‘some protein’ in urine were correctly identified by FWVs. Women diagnosed with any of the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy by FWVs were more likely to be counselled on at least one danger sign of pre-eclampsia (severe headache, blurring of vision and upper abdominal pain) than those without any such diagnosis (41% vs 19%, p value 0.008). All four cases of severe pre-eclampsia diagnosed by FWVs were given a loading dose of intramuscular magnesium sulphate and three among them were referred to a higher facility.ConclusionThe FWVs should be appropriately trained on risk assessment of pregnant women with particular emphasis on accurately assessing the diagnostic criteria of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and its management.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Rahul Chopra ◽  
Shivani Mathur ◽  
Vidya Dodwad ◽  
Nikhil Sharma ◽  
Siddharth Tevatia

Purpose: Indiscriminate disposal of bio medical waste poses a serious threat to environment and human health and is currently a burning issue with increasing health care facilities and associated waste generation. Hence this study assesses the awareness levels and attitude regarding biomedical waste disposal among post-graduates, under-graduates & auxiliary staff of a dental college.Materials and Method: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among post-graduates, under-graduates & auxiliary staff using a questionnaire. A total of 120 participants, 40 in each group answered the questionnaire. The answers were analyzed and graded for each group.Results: The results depict satisfactory awareness about biomedical waste disposal among post-graduates and under-graduates. However, the auxiliary staff lacks the awareness about proper biomedical waste disposal.Conclusion: The study reveals that there is a need to increase knowledge among the auxiliary staff regarding biomedical waste management by continuing training program.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. e0208199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne B. Wichmann ◽  
Eddy M. M. Adang ◽  
Kris C. P. Vissers ◽  
Katarzyna Szczerbińska ◽  
Marika Kylänen ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saif Hassan Alrasheed ◽  
Abd Elaziz Mohamed Elmadina

Purpose:  To see the effect of binocular vision problems on childhood academic performance and to record the teacher's perspectives about childhood eye care in Khartoum State of Sudan. Place and Duration of Study:  A descriptive cross-sectional study done among the school going children in the Khartoum State of Sudan during the year 2018. Study Design:  Descriptive cross sectional study. Material and Methods:  Three hundred and forty (340) primary school children’s were recruited for study by convenient sampling technique during the academic year 2018. After relevant history, ocular examination was performed. It included visual acuity measurement, assessment of refractive errors and binocular function tests. Academic performance of the children was recorded from academic records of the children. Finally, the qualitative data was derived from teachers’ perspectives about childhood eye care. Results:  Mean age of the participants was 11.96 ± 1.63 years. The findings revealed that (78.6%) of children achieved poor academic performances with decompensated exophoria at near. 52.7% children with poor academic performances had weak positive fusion reserve at near P = 0.04. 37.2% of the poor performers had convergence insufficiency. Fort eight percent of females with ocular complaints achieved poor academic performances P = 0.034. With regard to teacher's perspectives about childhood eye care, 98.8%believed that the vision problems had effect on the academic record of the children. Seventy percent of the teachers reported that the students did not undergo eye examinations before joining school. Conclusion:  Convergence Insufficiency and weak positive fusional reserve at near has a significant effect on academic performances.


2020 ◽  
pp. 63-65
Author(s):  
Anuradha Davey ◽  
Kaynat Nasser ◽  
Sanjeev Davey

Background Vision impairment can extend from no vision – visual impairment – or exceptionally low vision to not having the option to see specific hues. Serious vision misfortune or visual deficiency can influence your kid's development and learning. Early mediation can enable your kid to contact his maximum capacity. Otherworldliness gives an individual a feeling of rising above their prompt conditions and an intrapersonal development of direction and importance for their own life, with an inward feeling of association and trust in their own interior assets. Objective The goals of this study were to examine the impact of spirituality on both coping skills and vision-specific health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and the effect of psychological manifestations among Sparsh Govt. Blind Inter College, Partapur Meerut. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted and purposive sampling was used. Percentages and chi square test was used to find the most common and association of different psychological manifestations. Result In our study, 13.8% had depression of varying degree. The most common psychological manifestation was anxiety (46.7%) among them and 11.7% of students were feeling stress in their life. Students with depression and stress affected coping ability while stress had no affect Conclusion It was found in the study that spirituality was positively associated with coping ability and hence with general mental health. Moreover, spirituality was associated significantly with vision-specific HRQOL. The results showed that spirituality played a mediating role in the linkage between vision impairment and general mental health among adolescents of Sparsh Govt. Blind Inter College, Partapur, Meerut.


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