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PREVALENCE AND PATTERN OF PRESBYOPIA IN A RURAL NIGERIAN COMMUNITY

LE MOTIF DE LA PREVALENCE PRESBYTIE DANS LA COMMUNAUTE RURALE AU NIGERIA

*OBAJOLOWO TS1, OWOEYE JFA2, ADEPOJU FG2

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Prevalence and Pattern of Presbyopia in a Rural Nigerian Community

Le Motif de la Prevalence Presbytie Dans la Communaute Rurale au Nigeria

INTRODUCTION

Presbyopia is an age-related loss of accommodation that results in inability to focus at near distances due to the natural decline of the amplitude of accommodation with age. Correction of this is achieved by the use of a supplementary convex lens to enable the individual achieve comfortable near vision. Lifelong growth of the lens is currently thought to be the primary causal factor in the development of presbyopia1. Age, high ambient temperature, female gender and hypermetropia are major risk factors for the early onset and developmentofpresbyopia2-5.

Few population-based studies exist on the prevalence of presbyopia in developing countries as most studies of refractive error in our environment have been limited to distance vision. This is because presbyopia is presumed to be unimportant in places where reading and writing are not primarily important functions3. There is scant research evidence from the available studies to substantiate this assumption6. Hence, little attention has been paid to presbyopia in the developing world where literacy rates are low.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated in 2002 that about 153million are visually impaired from uncorrected refractive errors (i.e. presenting with visual acuity (VA)

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