Abstract:

Background: Cataract is an opacification of the crystalline lens of the eye causing mild to severe visual loss. Cataract is a multifactorial disease that could have a genetic, metabolic, behavioral or environmental causes. Although it is likely that these factors interact with each other but age is still the single most important risk factor for cataract.

Broad Objective: To assess the awareness and knowledge about cataract among patients attending ophthalmology clinic at BMC.

Methodology: This was a cross sectional study conducted in October 2019 in Mwanza region at Bugando Medical Centre. The study included all patients of 18 years and above attending outpatient clinic at Bugando Medical Centre. Data was collected through face to face interview using a structured questionnaire, then entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20.

Results: In this study majority of the participants (86.2%) where familiar with the term cataract but only 49.7% of participants defined cataract correctly as lens opacification while others 14.3% defined it as a white membrane growing on the eye, 5.3% as raise intraocular pressure and 30.7% didn’t know. Very low number of participants (9.5%) identified old age as a precipitating factor and only 8.5% recognized diabetes mellitus as the precipitating factor of cataract. Also in this study very few participants identifies genetics. UV light, obesity, hypertension and smoking as the risks factors of cataract (9%, 3.2%, 0.5%, 9%, and 0.5% respectively). 72% of participants agreed that cataract can cause blindness but only 53.4% knew that the blindness caused by cataract is reversible. The knowledge on treatment option for cataract wasn’t sufficient as only 59.8% of participants knew that surgery was a treatment option to reverse the blindness caused by cataract.

Conclusion: There is poor knowledge towards cataract hence, great effort should be made to increase the knowledge and awareness of the general public about this disease.