{"id":12926,"date":"2024-01-22T19:31:21","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T19:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/?p=12926"},"modified":"2024-01-22T19:31:22","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T19:31:22","slug":"epidemiology-and-trends-in-the-uptake-of-refractive-error-services-in-harare-zimbabwe-a-hospital-based-retrospective-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/?p=12926","title":{"rendered":"Epidemiology and trends in the uptake of refractive error services in Harare, Zimbabwe: a hospital-based retrospective study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Vimbainashe Evidence Kahoto<sup>1<\/sup>, Michael Agyemang Kwarteng<sup>1,2,5<\/sup>*, Bismark Owusu-Afriyie<sup>1<\/sup>, Ebenezer Zaabaar<sup>3<\/sup>, Samuel Kyei<sup>1,3,4<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>Department of Optometry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Bindura University of Science Education, Bindura, Zimbabwe<\/li><li>Discipline of Optometry, College of Health Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa<\/li><li>Department of Optometry and Vision Science, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana<\/li><li>Biomedical and Clinical Research Center, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana<\/li><li>Optmentry Unit, Department of Clinical Surgical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>*Corresponding Author: Michael Agyemang Kwarteng<\/strong>; E-mail: kwartengmichaelagyemang@gmail.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Abstract<br>Aim<\/strong><br>The study aimed to determine the epidemiology and evaluate the trends in the uptake of refractive error services in Harare.<br><strong>Methods<\/strong><br>A clinic-based retrospective study at the Greenwood Park Eye Centre and its three subsidiaries was conducted from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2020.<br><strong>Results<\/strong><br>12,216 patients\u2019 records were retrieved, out of which 1074 (8.79%) had refractive error cases. The prevalence of visual impairment at presentation was 5.80% [95% CI: 5.39 \u2013 6.23]. Among those with refractive error, the sample prevalence of visual impairment before correction was 41.30% [CI: 38.3 \u2013 44.3, 95%], and 2.20% [95% CI: 1.4 \u2013 3.3] after correction. There was inconsistency in the percentage utilization of refractive error services, with the highest being 42.60% in 2015. Refractive error types were related to age, employment position, and type of visual impairment prior to refractive error treatment.<br><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><br>There was a low percentage of refractive error services uptake in urban Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>Keywords:<\/strong> refractive error, visual impairment, refractive services, Zimbabwe<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Vimbainashe-Evidence-Kahoto.pdf\">Download PDF<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vimbainashe Evidence Kahoto1, Michael Agyemang Kwarteng1,2,5*, Bismark Owusu-Afriyie1, Ebenezer Zaabaar3, Samuel Kyei1,3,4 Department of Optometry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Bindura University of Science Education, Bindura, Zimbabwe Discipline of Optometry, College of Health Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Department of Optometry and Vision Science, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[126],"tags":[66],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12927,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12926\/revisions\/12927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mmj.mw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}