Centre for Gender and Advocacy, Takoradi Technical University, Takoradi, Ghana.
College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Nov 24;21(1):2148. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-12193-7.
The sense of sight is one of the important human sensory abilities that is required for independent functioning and survival. The highest burden of sight-related problems is recorded in low-and middle-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the burden, nationally representative analyses to understand the prevalence and determinants of vision difficulties are hard to find. Therefore, this study addressed this knowledge gap by estimating the prevalence of vision difficulties and its correlates in gender-stratified models in three West African countries: Ghana, Gambia, and Togo.
The study used the most recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys of Ghana (2017-2018), Gambia (2018), and Togo (2017). Summary statistics were used to describe the participants and logistic regression was used to perform the bivariate and multivariate analyses. The analyses were performed using Stata version 14 and the complex survey design of the datasets was accounted for using the 'svyset' command.
Gendered differences were observed for vision difficulties. More women than men reported vision difficulties in Ghana (men: 14.67% vs women: 23.45%) and Togo (men: 14.86% vs women: 23.61%), but more men than women reported vision difficulties in Gambia (men: 11.64% vs women: 9.76%). We also observed gender differences in how age, education, marital status, and region of residence were significantly associated with reported vision difficulties. The direction and magnitude of these relationships were different among men and women across the survey data in Ghana, Gambia, and Togo.
The findings imply the need to tackle the existing gender inequities that are associated with vision difficulties to promote the quality of life of individuals, especially among older adults.
视觉是人类重要的感官能力之一，对于独立生活和生存至关重要。视力相关问题的负担最高的国家是中低收入国家，尤其是撒哈拉以南非洲国家。尽管负担沉重，但在国家层面上进行分析以了解视力障碍的流行情况和决定因素却很难找到。因此，本研究通过在加纳、冈比亚和多哥这三个西非国家中按性别分层模型来估计视力障碍的流行情况及其相关因素，以此填补这一知识空白。
本研究使用了加纳（2017-2018 年）、冈比亚（2018 年）和多哥（2017 年）最新的多指标类集调查数据。使用汇总统计数据来描述参与者，并使用逻辑回归进行了双变量和多变量分析。使用 Stata 版本 14 进行分析，并使用数据集的“svyset”命令来考虑复杂的调查设计。
在视力障碍方面观察到了性别差异。在加纳（男性：14.67%，女性：23.45%）和多哥（男性：14.86%，女性：23.61%），女性比男性更报告视力障碍，但在冈比亚，男性比女性更报告视力障碍（男性：11.64%，女性：9.76%）。我们还观察到，年龄、教育程度、婚姻状况和居住地区与报告的视力障碍之间的关系在性别上存在差异。这些关系在加纳、冈比亚和多哥的调查数据中，男女之间的方向和程度都不同。
这些发现意味着需要解决与视力障碍相关的现有性别不平等问题，以提高个人的生活质量，尤其是在老年人中。
