Pattern of ocular findings among patients aged 40 years and above attending eye clinic at Juba teaching hospital in Southern Sudan

Abstract

To determine the pattern of ocular findings among patients aged 40 years and above attending to eye clinic at Juba Teaching Hospital in South Sudan. Design A descriptive cross-sectional hospital based study. Method All patients aged 40 years and above attended an eye clinic in Juba Teaching Hospital in the month of October to September 2013, who met the inclusion criteria for the study, underwent a thorough ophthalmological examination. Data collected analyzed using the SPSS statistics version 17.0 software. Results A total of 539 eyes of 270 patients were examined in this study, The range of age varied from 40 years to 84 years, with the majority of patients 204(75.5%) being between the age group of 40-60years. Male 140(51%) to female 130(49.1%) ratio was 1.1:1. The commonest ocular disease was dry eye syndrome with a prevalence of 199(36.9%), It was most prevalence in patients above 50 years of age (72%). Cataract was the second commonest ocular disease encountered with a prevalence of 116(21.5%), followed by refractive error/presbyopia 108 (20.0%), glaucoma 731(13.5%) and conjunctival degenerative conditions 47(8.7%). Conclusion The preventable causes of visual impairment and blindness were common among the patients. We recommend community education to reduce the prevalence of these diseases in general population and skilled human resource to offer optimal management for various ocular morbidity