• Emmanuel K Abu, Stephen Ocansey, Jennifer A Gyamfi, Michael Ntodie, and Enyam Ka Morny.
• Department of Optometry and Vision Science, School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
• Afr Health Sci. 2020 Jun 1; 20 (2): 779-788.

BackgroundOcular injury is a major cause of ocular morbidity and unilateral visual impairment and represents a considerable public health concern especially in low resource societies.ObjectiveTo evaluate the epidemiology and visual outcomes of ocular injuries in southern Ghana.MethodsA retrospective hospital-based case series was conducted. Information on new cases of ocular injuries were retrieved and parameters including time between injury occurrence and reporting to the clinic, presenting visual acuity (VA), and the best corrected final VA were investigated and visual outcomes were assessed Results: Most (50.2%) of the patients reported to the hospital after a day of sustaining an ocular injury; workplace injuries, older patients and farm-related injuries were most likely to report after a day of sustaining an injury. A significant proportion (40.4%) of patients reported with good presenting vision (6/6-6/18) which increased to 56.7% after treatment; 45.3% of patients reported with visual impairment (<6/18) and reduced to 42.4% after treatment. Farming (AOR = 4.5, p = 0.02), reporting after a day of sustaining injury (AOR = 78, p< 0.001), workplace injuries (AOR = 3.1, p = 0.007) and roadside injuries (AOR = 3.1, p = 0.02) were associated with poor visual outcomes. Initial VA 6/18 or better was the highest predictor of good visual outcome.ConclusionThere is a shift in the pattern of ocular injury occurrence from work-related to home- related.© 2020 bu EK et al.

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