Awareness regarding presbyopia among the patients presenting to eye OPD at Tertiary care center

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the awareness of presbyopia among the patients presenting to Eye OPD at Tertiary Care Center. This was a facility based cross sectional study conducted for a period of 1 month on patients belonging to age greater than 35 years presenting to Department of Ophthalmology. Detailed ophthalmic examination including visual acuity, BCVA, refraction, slit lamp examination and Fundus examination was done and findings were noted. About 74.1% participants in present study never heard of near vision loss. Most common reason for not using glasses for near vision was lack of felt need and image distortion. Most common problem faced by males was reading newspaper (78.6%) whereas that among females was threading needle (69.2%). Difficulty in reading newspaper and threading needle were significantly higher in urban residents as compared to rural population. Awareness regarding presbyopia in present study was found to be above average; however awareness regarding cause of presbyopia was poor. Presbyopia affect activities of daily living and most of the participants avoid wearing glasses because of poor quality glasses and difficulty in maintaining spectacles while working.