International Journal of Advances In Case Reports

OCULAR MORBIDITY PATTERN IN A SPCIALITY CLINIC OF RURAL HEALTH CENTRE IN CHITTOOR DISTRICT, AP.

Sadana Adala, Prabhu GR*, Sridhar MS

raviprabhu1610@gmail.com

Cataract, Refractive errors, Vitamin A deficiency, Allergic conjunctivitis, Pseudophakia.

The pattern of ocular morbidity varies according to region, age group and gender. Refractive errors, vitamin A deficiency and conjunctivitis are common morbid conditions in school age children while in geriatric age group, the common morbid conditions are cataract, refractive errors, conjunctivitis and glaucoma. In this background, this present study was conducted to find out the ocular morbidity pattern in a specialty clinic of a Rural Health Centre. This cross sectional study was conducted from April 2014 to March 2015 among 440 patients attending a weekly ophthalmology specialty clinic at Rural Health Centre, Chandragiri attached to SV Medical College, Tirupati. It was found that, overall, the common morbid conditions were found to be cataract (60.2%), refractive errors (14.5%) and allergic conjunctivitis (7.1%). The ocular morbidity pattern differed significantly among the age groups of the patients. In 5-15 years’ age group, the common morbid conditions were found to be refractive errors (60.8%), allergic conjunctivitis (17.4%) and burning eyes (8.7%). In the 60 & above years’ age group, the commonest morbid condition was found to be cataract (82.9%) followed by Aphakia-pseudophakia (10.0%). The common morbid conditions among male patients were found to be cataract (63.5%), refractive errors (1.5%) and allergic conjunctivitis (7.3%). The female patients had almost similar morbidity pattern with cataract (57.6%), refractive errors (16.9%) and allergic conjunctivitis (7.0%) being the common morbid conditions. Thus the pattern of ocular morbidity varies by age group. Attention is to be focused on these common morbid conditions depending on the age group of patients during routine ophthalmic checkups.