Abstract:
Background: As the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world, glaucoma poses a significant
public health problem. Lack of awareness about glaucoma is an important reason for its late presentation
which significantly increases the risk of blindness. Awareness about its nature and risk factors is known to
affect the behavior for seeking intervention, and this is especially important in a disease like glaucoma
which has an asymptomatic course at least in the initial stage. Raising public awareness and knowledge of
glaucoma is a key means of addressing the overwhelming consequences of the disease. Therefore, this
study is intended to assess the awareness and knowledge of glaucoma and associated factors among adults
in Kombolcha town, Northeast Ethiopia.
Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the level of awareness and knowledge of glaucoma and
associated factors in Kombolcha town South Wollo zone,Amhara Region Northeast Ethiopia in November
2022.
Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in Kombolcha town, South Wollo
Zone, Amhara Region,Northeast Ethiopia. A total of 465 adults above the age of 40 years were selected
using a multistage sampling technique. Pretested, structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The
collected data was coded and entered into Epidata version 3.1.SPSS version 26 was used for statistical
analysis. Binary logistic regression model and adjusted odds
ratio with 95% confidence level was used to identify the significant factors associated with awareness of
glaucoma. Variables with P–value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: About 465 adults were participated with a response rate of 100%. Above half (51.4%) of the
participants were males with median age of 49 years. Mass media was the main source of information
about glaucoma. The proportion of awareness was evident in17.2 % and good knowledge in9.5% of
adults. Age (40-49 years [AOR:0.213;0.068,0.666], 50-59 years[AOR:0.189;0.054,0.661]),sex (male
[AOR:0.434;0.2270.831]), educational status(secondary education[AOR:0.280;0.083,0.943], college and
above[AOR:0.052;0.0130.212],type of occupation (government employees[AOR:0.104;0.11,0.945],
merchants [AOR:0.077;0.010,0.578] and others[AOR: 0.118;0.015,0.954] ) were inversely associated
with poor awareness of glaucoma.
Conclusions: The proportion of awareness and good knowledge of glaucoma was low. Higher
educational status, male sex, younger age and type of occupation are significantly associated with
awareness of glaucoma.
