ABSTRACT

Globally, it is estimated that at least 2.2 billion people have a vision impairment or blindness, out

of which at least 1 billion of these have vision impairment that could have been prevented.

Population growth and ageing are increasing the number of people who are having increased

demand for eye care. Blinding and non-blinding eye diseases which are age related account for

ocular morbidity and is a devastating factor of health yet it has received little attention in health

promotion globally. This study assessed the level of knowledge of adults on age related eye

diseases, the attitude of adults on age related eye diseases and the factors that hinder the access to

proper eye health care. 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 in the study. Descriptive analysis

was performed. the knowledge level with regards to age related eye diseases was 42% among the

participants, which indicates that most of the participants had a poor knowledge. There was high

exercise of positive attitude (56%) among the study participants, meaning that most of the

participants exhibited favorable and good attitude towards eye health care. The barriers identified

in this study were lack of accessibility 74%, personal beliefs 67%, inefficient knowledge on

primary eye health 80%, cost of eye care services 85% and attitude about eye health 82%.

It is recommended that the Ghana health service, health personnel and the District Health

Directorate should intensify education on age related eye diseases especially in towns and cities .