ABSTRACT

Heritable ocular disorders are those ocular disorders that can be passed down from parent to offspring. Numerous ocular diseases affect individuals and communities worldwide. The occurrence of many of these diseases may be unavoidable, however others may be reliably predicted by investigating inheritance. The purpose of this study was to assess the awareness and knowledge of common heritable ocular disorders among staff of the University of Benin, Benin City. Some of the ocular diseases that was assessed include: Glaucoma, Retinitis pigmentosa, Color blindness, Age related macular degeneration (ARMD) and Refractive errors(astigmatism, hyperopia, myopia.)

This cross sectional study was carried out by surveying 351 staff of the University of Benin using a stratified sampling technique from the different departments in both Ugbowo and Ekehwan campuses; however,281 questionnaires were analyzed after removing 10 incorrectly filled questionnaires and 50 questionnaires that were not returned. A total of 97.5% of the respondent were aware that ocular disorders can be inherited. For the awareness of the individual disorders,46.62% of participants are aware of glaucoma, 13 .52 % age related macular degeneration, 11.39% retinitis pigmentosa, 90.75% myopia,88.3% ,hyperopia,72.6% astigmatism and 13.52% colour blindness. In addition the knowledge of the heritable ocular disorders was moderate except for retinitis pigmentosa, age-related macular degeneration and colour blindness that was poor. In conclusion, these heritable ocular disorders needs careful evaluation and preventive care to prevent poor quality of life and to improve daily lifestyle. Assessing the risks factor and health education will be beneficial to seek early treatment and prevent visual impairment in the society.