Prevalence and Causes of Visual Impairment among Adults in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State

The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence and causes of visual impairment among adults in Jos North Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State, Nigeria. This was a rapid assessment of avoidable blindness (RAAB) study in which a multistaged sampling technique was used to select a total of 22 clusters. Households were selected by the compact segment technique, which were visited door by door until 39 persons aged 50 years and above are identified and recruited for the study. Examination and diagnosis was made based on the RAAB protocol to determine the major cause of visual impairment. The prevalence of visual impairment and blindness was 18.8% [confidence interval (CI) = 16.2–21.4%] and 5.6% (CI = 4.2–7.0%), respectively. The wards with the highest prevalence of visual impairment are Rigiza (45%), Gangare (35%), and Ibrahim Katsina ward (35%). About 96.8% causes of visual impairments and 95% causes of blindness were avoidable with cataract [78 (48.8%)], glaucoma [26 (16.3%)], uncorrected refractive error [25 (15.6%)], cataract surgical complications [17 (10.6%)], and couching [5 (3.1%)] being the most common causes of visual impairment and cataract [18 (37.5%)], glaucoma [16 (33.3%)], and couching [5 (10.4%)] being the most common causes of blindness. The prevalence of visual impairment was found to be 18.8% in Jos North Local Government Council, and this varies among the wards with Rigiza, Gangare, and Ibrahim Katsina having the highest prevalence. Most of the causes were avoidable. There is a need to reorganize the existing eye-care program and also integrate eye-care services into the existing health-care services that are not rendering eye-care services in the LGA so as to reduce the burden of blindness and visual impairment.