Background: The use of eye care services varies among different population groups. Objective: This study aimed to assess self-reported eye care use (ECU) and associated demographic factors among Malawian adults. Methods: This study used secondary data from the Malawi Fifth Integrated Household Survey 2019-2020, a nationally representative survey. The study included 12,288 households and 27,336 individuals 15 years and older. We entered age, sex, level of education, residency (urban/rural), and chronic disease into a logistic regression model, and used a confusion matrix to predict the model’s accuracy. A P value <.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: About 60.6% (95% CI 60.0%-61.2%) of those with eye problems accessed formal care 2 weeks before the survey date. A logistic regression model showed that ECU was positively associated with education compared to none (odds ratio [OR] 6.6, 95% CI 5.927-7.366; P<.001), males compared to females (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.104-1.290; P<.001), and urban residence compared to rural (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.118-1.375; P<.001). ECU was negatively associated with age (OR 7, 95% CI 6.782-8.476; P<.001) and having chronic diseases (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.547-0.708; P<.001). Conclusions: Social support, women empowerment, education, and mobile clinics are key strategic areas that would increase access to eye care in Malawi. Further studies can investigate ECU among the pediatric population.

Background: The population of older adults is growing dramatically. Sadly, this populace is highly prone to develop various ocular morbidities, which if left unattended can lead to blindness.Aim: To determine the distribution of ocular morbidities among older adults at a secondary hospital in Malawi.Methods: This was a retrospective cross‐sectional study conducted at Mzimba North District Hospital in Malawi. We retrieved 314 patient records from the hospital's ophthalmic outpatient registry from August 2020 to July 2022 using a nonprobability census sampling technique. Data entry and analysis were done employing SPSS (v.26).Results: More females 164 (52.2%) than males 150 (47.8%) had ocular morbidities. Cataract 108 (34.4%) was the most common ocular morbidity followed by allergic conjunctivitis 104 (33.1%), then pingueculae 44 (14%), and glaucoma 8 (2.5%) Cataract showed a statistically significant difference between males and females (p < 0.05). And Glaucoma portrayed a statistically significant variation according to age groups (p < 0.05). According to the time of the year, most cases were attended to in March compared to August.Conclusion: The majority of blinding conditions among the elderly in Malawi are preventable similar to other geographical settings. Therefore, it is feasible to enhance the quality of life for senior Malawians and lessen the impact of blindness on individuals, families, and communities by addressing preventable causes of blindness through focused interventions.

Background: Covid 19 has fast‐paced the use of technological innovations, mainly the internet. However, Internet use can lead to several behavioral and psychological conditions, such as cyberbullying and distorted relationships, which could lead to suicide ideation. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young adults.Aim: To assess the association between Internet addiction and suicide ideation among university students in Malawi. Furthermore, to assess the factors associated with suicidal thoughts among Malawian college students who surf the World Wide Web.Methods: This cross‐sectional study utilized secondary research and used data available from https://data.mendeley.com/drafts/xbfbcy5bhv. Internet addiction was measured using the Internet Addiction Test. The dependent variable includes suicide ideation. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Out of the 620 participants, 514 (82.2%) were aged between 15 and 24. The majority were males 401 (64.7%). The mean IAT score was 46.08 (SD = 14.60). The IAT score was 44.81 (SD = 13.85) among males and 48.40 (SD = 15.65) among females (p = 0.003). About 341 (55%) of students use the internet excessively. Suicide ideation was prevalent among 101 (16.3%) of the students. Suicide ideation was significantly associated with internet addiction. (p < 0.001). The odds of developing suicidal thoughts increased about 3 times among excessive internet users compared to average users (OR = 2.91, 95% CI = 1.213–7.018). However, age, gender, discipline, and year of study were not associated with suicide ideation.Conclusion: The study suggests that internet addiction affects suicide ideation mainly through distorting social relationships. School settings should increase awareness regarding the safe use of the internet to ensure a balance between online and real‐life interactions and curb suicide.

Background and Aim: Goldman Applanation Tonometry (GAT), the gold standard of tonometry, is used without fluorescein in low‐resource settings. Nevertheless, corneal biomechanics differ among population groups.Purpose: The aim of the study is to assess the relationship between GAT findings with and without fluorescein among glaucomatous and nonglaucomatous adults in Malawi.Methods: This was a cross‐sectional quantitative study involving 22 glaucoma patients and 22 nonglaucoma patients at Mzuzu Central Hospital. We used a purposive sampling technique to select participants into the two groups. Next, we measured intraocular pressure using GAT with and without fluorescein. Then we entered the data into SPSS version 25. We employed the Wilcoxon test to make comparisons based on age and gender. We considered the value of p < 0.05 statistically significant.Results: There is a statistically significant and strong positive correlation between nfGAT and fGAT among both glaucoma (r = 0.989, p < 0.001) and nonglaucoma (r = 0.955, p < 0.001). According to age, there is no significant difference in IOP value measured with nfGAT and fGAT for both glaucomas (p = 0.109) and nonglaucoma subjects (p = 0.076). However, significant differences were observed between nfGAT and fGAT mean IOP according to sex among both glaucomatous and nonglaucomatous subjects (p = 0.017 and p = 0.32, respectively).Conclusion: The study suggests that the merits of intraocular pressure measured using GAT without fluorescein are not speculative, therefore the two techniques can be routinely used interchangeably in diagnosing and managing glaucoma.

Purpose: To assess the relationship between non-invasive tear break-up time (NITBUT) and maximum blink interval (MBI) values among young adults. Method: The study was conducted at Mzuzu University and involved 98 subjects (55 females and 43 males) aged between 18 and 40 years. All subjects were screened under the slit lamp, and were also asked questions to determine their eligibility to participate in the study. NITBUT measurements were taken by checking the discontinuity of the mires on the keratometer. MBI measurements were taken by observing the time period the subject could keep their eyes open without blinking. Results: There was a positive correlation (r=0.64, r²=0.418, P<0.001) between NITBUT and MBI values. The relationship between NITBUT and MBI values was similar in both males and females. Furthermore, the study showed that age, as well as gender, is not correlated to NITBUT and MBI values. Conclusion: There is a positive significant correlation (r=0.64, r²=0.418, P<0.001) between NITBUT and MBI values. There was no significant difference between the NITBUT and MBI values between males and females. The study has also discovered that there is no correlation between NITBUT and MBI with age and gender.

Background Physical activity (PA) is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle and is a significant contributor to global health by lowering the risk of morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and other Non-Communicable Diseases. Despite this, PA research has rarely been the focus of public health activities in Malawi. Objective The study aimed to evaluate and compare PA Patterns of urban and rural Malawians and their relationship with hypertension, diabetes, and demographic and behavioral factors. Methods This was a cross-sectional study that utilized the secondary research approach. The review analyzed data collected from Karonga and Lilongwe using questionnaires administered from May 2013 to April 2017. The data was entered in the SPSS version 27. Next, the Chi-square test was used for univariate analysis. Furthermore, a binary logistic regression model was used to assess the risk factors. The value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results The study involved 30575 participants, with 16672 from urban areas and 13903 from rural sites, and 1168 (38.2%) males and 18907 (61.8%) females. Many study participants (97.7%) met WHO criteria for physical activity, with 13610 (97.9%) in rural areas and 16254 (97.5%) in urban areas meeting WHO recommendations. Age, gender, occupation, diabetes diagnosis, and hypertension diagnosis showed a significant association with PA in both settings. However, drinking depicted a strong positive association in urban areas and not in rural areas. Smoking showed no statistically significant associations with PA in both sites (> 0.05). Conclusion The study confirms previous work. PA is higher in rural areas than urban areas highlighting the role of urbanization and globalization in African cities. In general, the Malawian population follows the physical activity recommendations closely. However, efforts to improve PA should ensure equity and equal access to PA facilities focusing on men and urban residents, unemployed, hypertension and diabetes patients.