A survey on visual impairment amongst long route bus drivers to and from Kampala Capital City, Kampala district, Uganda.

Abstract

This study was a survey on visual impairment amongst long route bus drivers to and from Kampala capital city, in Kampala district, Uganda. Uncorrected Refractive errors are an important cause of visual impairment in many countries. Visual impairment is “defined as visual acuity worse than 6/12”, One must meet the minimum eye sight standard for driving by having a visual acuity of at least decimal 0.5(6/12) measured on the Snellen scale (with glasses or contact lenses on if necessary) using both eyes together or, if you have sight in one only, in that eye. (GOV.UK, n.d). The study design was a cross sectional study carried out in Kampala capital city, Kampala district. 106 (100% male) participants took part in the study with an age range of 30-73 years, of whom 48.1% (51) were above 50 years. 97.8% of those who attended a medical assessment had an eye assessment: 2% of those were assessed by an optician, 18% by a nurse, 20% by a doctor, and 60% did not know the qualification of the practitioner who tested their eyes before issuance of the license. 19.81% of the participants had a VA of ≤6/9 and 1.89% of the participants were visually impaired (VA <6/12). 100% (106)of the participants had good color vision(6/6) using HRR , also 100%(106) had good visual fields using confrontation and facial amsler. 87.8% of all the participants had normal stereopsis, and 12.2.02% had borderline stereopsis results. In conclusion, the study showed that the majority ( 98.11% of the participants) of long route bus drivers in Kampala Capital City had good vision (VA of 6/12 and better ) and 1.89% of the participants were visually impaired (VA <6/12).