ASSESSMENT THE KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES OF PARENTS AND CARE GIVERS TOWARD OCULAR DEVIATION IN OREDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT

ABSTRACT

Ocular deviations can be defined as the misalignment of the visual axis of the two eyes. Types of ocular deviations include; esodeviation, exodeviation, vertical deviations and cyclodeviations. Ocular deviations can lead to amblyopia and loss of binocular balance.There is a number of persons living with different types of ocular deviations in our society today but the level of awareness is quite low. The purpose of this study was to access the knowledge ,attitude and practices of parents and caregivers towards ocular deviations in Oredo local government. A community based crossed sectional study was done in Oredo local government for a duration of 2 months with a sample size of 355. Random sampling technique was employed to achieve the required number of participants for the study. A questionnaire was formulated on the basis of review of literature to access the knowledge, attitude and practices of parents and caregivers towards ocular deviations . The questionnaire was pretested on a similar study group to assess its efficacy . A total percentage of women (62.2%) and men (37.5%) were involved in this study. face to face interviews were performed using a structured questionnaire . data analysis was done using descriptive analysis on different socio demographic factors. Age ranged from 36.95±08.9 years(mean) .levels of education showed that a vast majority had tertiary education , a good majority of the participants were aware of ocular deviations. Perceived causes of ocular deviations included weak eye muscles (35.5%), headache (15%) and infections (11.4%). 16.3% did not know the cause of ocular deviation. The effect on social and family life showed that 20% of their family members would be embarrassed, 69.9% would be worried, 2.3% not concerned and8.2%wereindifferent.Oredo local government area has a fairly average level of knowledge, attitude and practices towards ocular deviations. Health education by health professionals, mass media and the government is recommended to increase the level of awareness among members of the public. Keywords: Ocular deviation, strabismus, crossed eye.