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Original research
Visual impairment and social isolation, depression and life satisfaction among older adults in Ghana: analysis of the WHO’s Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) Wave 2
  1. John Tetteh1,
  2. Gladys Fordjour2,
  3. George Ekem-Ferguson3,4,
  4. Anita Ohenewa Yawson5,
  5. Vincent Boima6,
  6. Kow Entsuah-Mensah4,
  7. Richard Biritwum1,
  8. Akye Essuman1,
  9. George Mensah1,
  10. Alfred Edwin Yawson1
  1. 1Community Health, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
  2. 2Ophthalmology Unit, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana
  3. 3Psychiatry Unit, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana
  4. 4National Cardiothoracic Centre, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana
  5. 5Anesthesia Department, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana
  6. 6Medicine and Therapeutics, School of Medicine, University of Ghana College of Health Sciences, Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana
  1. Correspondence to Dr Alfred Edwin Yawson; aeyawson{at}ug.edu.gh

Abstract

Aim To estimate the prevalence of visual impairment (VI) and associated factors and further quantify its association with social isolation, depression and life satisfaction among older adults in Ghana.

Methods WHO Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health Ghana dataset for older adults 50 years and above was used for this study. Social isolation, depression and life satisfaction were our primary outcomes with VI being our secondary outcome. We employed negative binomial, Poisson and generalised negative binomial regression models individually modified with Coarsened Exact Matching method of analysis. All analysis was performed by adopting robust SE estimation using Stata V.15.

Results The prevalence of VI was 17.1% (95% CI14.3 to 20.2) and the factors associated include age groups, educational level, religion, region, where the participant was born, and difficulty in work/households activity (p<0.05). The inferential analysis shows that the significant log-likelihood score of social isolation and life satisfaction for older adults with VI was 0.25 more (95% CI 0.03 to 0.47) and 0.04 less (95% CI −0.08 to −0.01), respectively, compared with those without VI. The prevalence of depression among older adults with VI was significantly 90% higher compared with non-VI (adjusted prevalence ratio (95% CI) = 1.90 (1.17 to 3.09), p<0.001).

Conclusion The prevalence of VI is associated with increasing age, educational level and self-rated health. VI was identified to be associated with social isolation, depression and diminishing life satisfaction. In order to achieve sustainable development goal #3, a national focus on geriatric care as part of the implementation of the National Ageing Policy will garner improvement in the quality of life of older adults with visual VI in Ghana. Eye health practitioners at all levels of the health systems should consider the psychosocial consequences of VI for the optimum care of the older adult client.

  • visual impairment
  • social isolation
  • depression
  • life satisfaction
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000492

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors JT, GF and AEY developed the concept. JT analysed the data. GF, AEY, AOY and GE-F contributed to writing the first draft manuscript. VB, AE, KE-M, GM and RB contributed to the writing and reviewing of the various sections of the manuscript. All the authors reviewed the final version of the manuscript before submission. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

    • Funding Funding was obtained for the WHO SAGE Wave 2 Survey in Ghana. The data is made available for public use upon request. This analysis, however, did not have any funding support.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available upon request.