ABSTRACT
Glaucoma, a progressive optic neuropathy leading to irreversible blindness and also the second most prevalent cause of blindness worldwide, poses a significant challenge in developing countries like Nigeria where access to specialized eye care services is limited. Understanding the epidemiology of POAG is essential for developing effective public health strategies, identifying at-risk populations, and allocating healthcare resources efficiently. The aim of this was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with glaucoma among workers in health institutions in Benin City, Edo State. 303 hospital workers from two hospitals and one health center in Benin city (118 males and 185 females) with a mean age of 39.6±11.8 years participated in this study. A pretested well-structured questionnaire was used to gather data on socio-demographics, awareness, knowledge, attitude and practice. From the results obtained, a higher proportion (37.3%) had poor awareness level, 33.7% had good awareness and 29.0% had average awareness level. Glaucoma awareness was significantly associated with gender (p =0.041). Most of the respondents (96.7%) had heard of glaucoma, 88.8% agreed that glaucoma can affect anyone and 89.4% said glaucoma related blindness can be prevented. Many (46.2%) of the respondents had average knowledge, 45.9% had good knowledge and only 7.9% had poor knowledge. The knowledge of glaucoma had significant association with age (p=0.015), gender (p=0.000) and years of work (p=0.012). Regarding their attitudes and practice 58.1% of the respondents has not been screened for glaucoma before, 30.4% rarely follow doctor recommendations, although 75.3% said they would advise their coworker to go see an eye doctor if they showed possible signs of glaucoma. 59.1% said that regular intraocular checkup is needed in the absence of any eye symptoms and 67.7% strongly agreed that those with family history of glaucoma should be screened. 89.1% said that regular ye checkup, 86.5% agreed that eyedrops to lower intraocular xi pressure and 84.2% said that surgery was a treatment and management plan for glaucoma. In conclusion, this study showed that the health workers demonstrated high awareness and knowledge regarding glaucoma, also their attitudes were largely positive. The result emphasized the need to create more awareness for regular glaucoma screening even among hospital workers.
