Knowledges, attitudes and practices related to primitive open angle glaucoma in the adult population in northern Benin

Abstract

Introduction: Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG) is a serious condition responsible for irreversible blindness. It is one of the main causes of blindness in developing countries. Purpose: To assess the knowledges, attitudes and practices relating to Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG) in the adult population in northern Benin. Patients and methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study. It concerned all persons aged 18 years old and over. We had done a two-stage sampling. The Chi2 test, at the 5% threshold, had been used to study the associations. Results: Of a total of 560 subjects, 548 (97.85%) participated in the study. The mean age was 33.1 ± 16.5 years. The male sex was more represented (61.13%) with a sex ratio of 1.57. The secondary level was represented with 46.35% (n = 254) and as an occupation, 22.63% (n = 124) were traders. 70.99% (n = 389) of subjects had heard of eye disease, of which only 8.76% (n = 48) had heard of glaucoma. It is called Naradiou in Bariba. But only 1.24% had a good knowledge of the disease. 50% (n = 24) did not known the cause, 4.17% (n = 2) attributed it to the curse and 2.08% (n = 1) to witchcraft. 72.50% (n = 35) knew that glaucoma could progress to blindness and 59.09% (n = 13) thought it was irreversible. 79.17% (n = 38) of subjects knew that there is a treatment, 52.63% (n = 20) said it was medical, 36.84% (n = 14) said it was surgical and 10, 53% (n = 4) thought it is traditional. The attitude was bad in 57.74% of the cases. Education and occupation were significantly associated with glaucoma knowledge and practice, but only gender was statistically related to attitude with a p-value of 0.0052. Conclusion: The level of knowledge of POAG in the adult population in northern Benin is alarming, as is the attitude and the practice which remains to be improved. Communication programs for behavior change must be initiated in order to reduce the rate of blindness linked to this pathology in this population.