Background: Visual impairment (VI) is a public health problem that can affect an individual’s social wellbeing. The study aims to determine the distribution and causes of vision impairment (VI) and blindness among patients at Nigerian Army Eye Centre Lagos, Nigeria. Method: An institutional cross-sectional study was conducted, and a systematic random sampling technique was used to enrol study participants from their medical records. Information about their demography, presenting visual acuity (VA), best corrected visual acuity and cause of VI and blindness, were retrieved. Result: A total of five hundred (500) medical records of patients aged from 4 to 96 years, with a mean age of 54.07 ± 21.43 years, were considered for the study. Among the participants, more than half were males (51.2%) and ≥60 years (53.0%). A large (47.2%) proportion of the patients had moderate VI at the time of presentation, followed by blindness (22.0%). The major cause of blindness was cataract, while glaucoma and refractive error were the major causes of VI. Blindness and VI were significantly associated with the type of VI before and after the provision of intervention (p < 0.05) across different age groups (children, youths, adults, elderly) with an adjusted p < 0.003 after an intervention. Conclusions: Cataracts, glaucoma and uncorrected refractive error (URE) were the major causes of VI and blindness in Lagos State. VI was more prevalent in males than females; however, there was no significant difference between the two proportions. The prevalence of VI among age groups was more significant for those 60 years and above. Early screening for the detection and management of cataract, URE and glaucoma is highly advised to reduce the burden of VI.

Globally, there has been a dramatic increase in the geriatric population. Sadly, this populace is highly prone to develop various ocular morbidities putting pressure on the strained eye care delivery system especially in low-income countries. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine the distribution of ocular morbidities among elderly. The study was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted at Mzuzu Central Hospital in Malawi. We retrieved data from the hospital’s Ophthalmology out-patient registry from January 2021 to December 2021. We recruited all 970 elderly patients who visited the clinic during the period of study. Data entry and analysis was done employing SPSS (v.26). More males than females had ocular morbidities. Cataract 400 (41.2%) was the most prevalent ocular morbidity followed by glaucoma 189 (19.5%), pinguecula 48 (4.9%) and allergic conjunctivitis 43 (4.4%). Anterior segment eye diseases were common 714 (73.6%). The prevalence of cataract, glaucoma, refractive error and allergic conjunctivitis was significantly associated with sex (p < 0.05). Age association was found with the prevalence of cataract, glaucoma, pinguecula, allergic conjunctivitis and corneal scar (p < 0.05). The pattern of eye diseases is endemic to the country. More resources should be targeting cataract and glaucoma among the age group.

Background and Aim: To report the scope of optometry practice in Trinidad and Tobago to identify areas that need improvement.Methods: A cross‐sectional study of optometrists in Trinidad and Tobago was conducted using a validated self‐structured questionnaire. Data obtained was exported to the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Descriptive analysis and Pearson χ² were used to summarize the demographic data and determine associations, respectively.Result: A total of 63 optometrists participated in the study. Majority of them were females (69.8%, n = 44), Christians (65.1%), East Indians (47.6%), and 30 years and below (66.7%). Most (87%) of them utilized routine optometric equipment in their clinical practice including autorefractors, retinoscopes, direct ophthalmoscopes, lensometers, phoropters, slit lamp biomicroscopes, trial lens boxes, and visual acuity chart projectors. A few of them have noncontact tonometer (4.8%), Volk lenses (1.6%), and perform color vision tests (1.6%). Fewer (12.7%, n = 8) practitioners provided low‐vision services. The use of pharmaceutical agents was prevalent among the participants (55.6%). Additionally, the provision of contact lenses was the most frequently practiced service among the participants (85.7%, n = 54). A significant association was observed between the provision of low‐vision services and sex (p = 0.03).Conclusion: The scope of optometry practice in Trinidad and Tobago is in accordance with the basic guidelines set out by the World Council of Optometry but there is need to get more involved in the provision of low vision and other specialty services.

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.

Introduction Refractive error is one of the major causes of blurred vision. It is a common eye disorder even in children. The World Health Organization had estimated refractive error to cause visual impairment to about 153 million people around the world with over 1.4 million children affected. Eighty percent (80%) of whom live in developing countries. The right to sight, a global initiative launched by World Health Organization, has the main aim of eliminating avoidable visual impairment and blindness at a global level. In order to achieve this goal, visual screening in pre-school and school children has long been a tradition in developed nations of the world. The significance of this cannot be overemphasized, especially with the already established correlation between school performance and visual status. However, in developing countries visual screening for children is not yet well established, thereby leaving many children with undetected refractive error, which could result in visual impairment. This study was aimed at evaluating the prevalence of refractive error among early primary school age children at Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area(LGA) in Ogun State, Nigeria. Methodology: The study was designed as a cross-sectional study. It employed a multi-staged sampling method to recruit 205 pupils aged 5-9 years attending schools in Ado-Odo Ota as study participants to determine the prevalence of refractive error among the pupils attending primary schools in this area. Following ocular pathology screening for the children, subjects found fit were refracted both objectively and subjectively using auto-refractor and trial lenses respectively. Result: A prevalence of 30.73% of refractive error was recorded. Myopia had the highest prevalence (24.88%), followed by astigmatism 3.42% and hyperopia with the least prevalence of 2.44%. Older children had higher frequencies of refractive error than the younger ones with the males having more refractive error than the females (19.51% and 11.22%) respectively. Conclusion: The study concluded that refractive error is significantly present among this population and recommended that parents should ensure that their children are screened for refractive error, and that government should introduce school health programs to curb the growing menace of visual impairment due to uncorrected refractive error.