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9403

Evaluation of Awareness and Attitudes towards Common Eye Diseases among the General Population of Northwestern Saudi Arabia

Article

Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Abstract

Background: Assessing of the population's awareness concerning eye diseases would provide a fundamental basis and acts as a future reference to execute health promotion initiatives. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the public awareness and attitudes towards common eye diseases in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia during the period from June 2017 to December 2017. A convenient sample of 397 participants of adults aged above 18 years old was chosen by a stratified method. A self-administered online survey included multiple choice and true-false questions was used to obtain information about respondent's awareness regarding common eye diseases including cataract, refractive errors, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. Results: 77.6% of participants were females, 41.4% were between 18 and 25 years, 52% of the respondents had sufficient knowledge regarding common eye problems. The most frequent sources of information were the internet (46.7%), relatives (38.5%) and mass media (35.4%). The participant's knowledge ranged from 66.3% for the cataract to 36.3% for refractive errors. Only educational level and job were significantly associated with knowledge about refractive errors. The majority of the respondents (75%) reported visiting ophthalmologists only when they have complaints and just 10% of them visited ophthalmologists regularly. When they had eye problems, almost two-thirds visited the ophthalmologist directly whereas 9% and 7.4% of them did nothing or depended on home therapy, respectively. Conclusion: Awareness and knowledge of adult population in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia is suboptimal. Health education campaigns are needed to improve their knowledge and protect them from adverse complications of these diseases.

DOI

10.21608/ejhm.2018.9403

Keywords

Knowledge, Cataract, Glaucoma, refractory errors, diabetic retinopathy

Authors

First Name

Wareef A.

Last Name

Al-Lahim

MiddleName

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Affiliation

Faculty of Medicine, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

Email

allahim.w@gmail.com

City

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Orcid

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First Name

Reema S.

Last Name

Al-Ghofaili

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Faculty of Medicine, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

Email

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City

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Orcid

-

First Name

Hyder

Last Name

Mirghani

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Faculty of Medicine, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

Email

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City

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Orcid

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First Name

Hani

Last Name

ALBalawi

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Faculty of Medicine, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

70

Article Issue

11

Related Issue

1821

Issue Date

2018-01-01

Receive Date

2018-07-21

Publish Date

2018-01-01

Page Start

1,983

Page End

1,989

Print ISSN

1687-2002

Online ISSN

2090-7125

Link

https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/article_9403.html

Detail API

https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=9403

Order

20

Type

Original Article

Type Code

606

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

The Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine

Publication Link

https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Evaluation of Awareness and Attitudes towards Common Eye Diseases among the General Population of Northwestern Saudi Arabia

Details

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023