Socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the study participants
A total of 634 participants were interviewed, and 608 of them responded, giving the study a 95.6% response rate. Respondents' ages ranged from 35 to 87 years, with a mean (SD) age of 46.99 (10.69) years. More than half 339 (55.8%) of the respondents were females. Two hundred sixty-six (43.8%) of the respondents were Muslims in their religion followed by Orthodox Christians which was 205 (33.7%). Nearly two-thirds, 393 (64.6%) of the respondents were married. About one-fourth, 156 (25.7%) of the respondents had completed secondary education. More than one-third, 217 (35.7%) reported that their occupation was a merchant. (Table 1).
Regarding the wealth status of the respondents, 20.6%, 22.9%, 17.9%, 18.9%, and 19.7% were categorized as very poor, poor, medium, high, and very high in their wealth status respectively. (Figure: 1).
Health-related characteristics of the study participants
486 respondents, or 79.8%, had no known family history of glaucoma. A little more than two-thirds of the participants in the study, 415 (68.3%), had no diabetes mellitus, and 84 (13.8%) were unaware of their diabetes mellitus status. Similarly, more than half of 360(59.2%) of the study participants were not hypertensive. Before the data collection, 299 (34.4%) study participants had their eyes examined. Of the study's participants, 269 (44.2%) had a history of eye disease. One hundred eleven (18.3%) of study participants had a history of smoking in their lifetime of which 46 (41.4%) were current smokers (Table 2).
Respondents’ sources of information about glaucoma
The responders had access to a variety of sources of information about glaucoma. The majority of respondents, 152 (64.7%), learned about glaucoma from the media, followed by health educators (56.2%). (Figure 2).
The level of awareness towards glaucoma among adults in Jimma town
Have you ever heard of glaucoma? Was a question to which 235 respondents (38.7%) replied: "yes." and of them, 101 (43%) have defined glaucoma as a "cause of visual field loss," 120 (51.1%) have defined glaucoma as "high eye pressure damaging eye," 62 (26.4) have described glaucoma as “causal visual field loss” (Table 3).
The level of awareness of glaucoma was 37.8 % (95% CI, 33.9% -41.6%) (Figure 3).
The level of knowledge about glaucoma among adults in Jimma town
Of 230 participants who had awareness about glaucoma, 117 (50.9%), (95 CI, 44.3-57.8) had good knowledge regarding glaucoma (Figure 7). The mean knowledge score of glaucoma was 9.12 ±2.94.
Factors associated with awareness towards glaucoma among adults in Jimma town.
In bivariate logistic regression sex of the respondent, educational status, occupational status, family history of glaucoma, history of diabetes, history of hypertension, history of eye disease, eye examination, and wealth index were associated with awareness about glaucoma. In Multivariable logistic regression educational status, family history of glaucoma, eye examination, and wealth status were factors associated with awareness of glaucoma.
Adults attended grade 12 and above had 2.3 times higher odds of awareness about glaucoma as compared to those who couldn’t read and write in Jimma town [(AOR=2.32, 95% CI:(1.18, 4.55)), p=0.014))].
The odds of having awareness of glaucoma were 3.8 times higher than among adults with a family history of glaucoma as compared to individuals with no family history of glaucoma (AOR=3.82 (95% CI, 2.35-6.21), p <0.001). Adults who underwent eye examination were 2.54 times more likely to have awareness of glaucoma as compared to those adults with no eye examination (AOR=2.54 (95% CI, 1.70, 3.78), p <0.001)). Similarly, adult populations with a very high wealth index status were 1.8 times more likely to have awareness of glaucoma as compared to those who had a very low wealth index status (AOR=1.87 (95% CI, 1.04-3.35), p=0.035) (Table 4).
Associated factors of knowledge towards glaucoma among adults in Jimma town.
In bivariate logistic regression sex, educational status, family history of glaucoma, history of eye disease, eye examination, and wealth index status were factors associated with knowledge about glaucoma.
In multivariable logistic regression educational status and ever had eye examinations were factors associated with knowledge about glaucoma.
Thus, the odds of having knowledge about glaucoma were 6 times higher among adults who attended grade 12 and above education as compared to adults who couldn’t read and write (AOR=6.07 (95% CI, 2.06, 17.87), p<0.001)). In the same manner, adults individuals who had undergone eye examination were 3.5 times more likely to be knowledgeable about glaucoma than those with no eye examination previously ((AOR=3.58 (95% CI, 2.01, 6.40), p<0.001)) (Table 5).