ABSTRACT

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of vision loss in adults aged 20–74 years.

Diabetic retinopathy is one among the leading causes of preventable blindness worldwide. The

overall global prevalence of diabetic retinopathy is 34.6% and it accounts for 4.8% of blindness

in the world. In the last decade, DR ranked as the fifth most common cause of preventable

blindness and fifth most common cause of moderate to severe visual impairment. In 2017, of an

estimated 285 million people worldwide with diabetes, over one-third have signs of DR, and a

third of these are afflicted with vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy. This study assessed the

prevalence and knowledge on diabetic retinopathy at the War memorial Hospital. Data was

obtained from questionnaires distributed to one hundred participants who visited the hospital

within the study period using a simple random sampling.

A Hospital-based cross-sectional study design was employed to assess the prevalence of diabetic

retinopathy among diabetic patients, to assess the level of knowledge on diabetic retinopathy and

to find out the socio demographic factors that influence the knowledge level. Descriptive

analysis was performed. At the end of the study it was realized that, the prevalence of diabetic

retinopathy was 31% (low), which indicates that most of the participants did not have diabetic

retinopathy. There was a higher prevalence of participants with low knowledge (59%) on

Diabetic retinopathy. The age, educational level and the number of years as a diabetic were

significantly associated with knowledge level on diabetic retinopathy.

It is recommended that the Ghana health service and health personnel intensify education on the

risk factors and need for early treatment for Diabetic retinopathy among diabetics in the

populace.