FACTORS INFLUENCING THE INCIDENCE OF GLAUCOMA AMONG ADULT PATIENTS IN GENERAL HOSPITALS IN ANAMBRA STATE FROM 2002 – 2006
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Millions of people living in Nigeria are cut off from the mainstream of economic and social development due to heavy burden of diseases. Among these diseases is glaucoma which is the result of too much pressure in the eye. It is usually believed to begin after the age of 40 (forty) years and is a common cause of blindness (Mohammed,2001).
Responsibility for health care in Nigeria is shared among the constitutional tiers of government: federal, state and local. The local governments are supposed to take care of the primary level (emphasizing preventive Medicare), while state governments are responsible for the secondary level (emphasizing curative Medicare), and the federal government is in charge of the tertiary level of care (emphasizing referral Medicare) to which teaching and specialist hospitals belong. This implies that there are basically three health care levels in Nigeria: primary, secondary and tertiary health care levels. (Anyanwu, Oyefusi, Oaikhegn, & Dimowo 1997:608).
In Nigeria, glaucoma constitutes a medical, public health and socio- economic problem. This is because Nigeria is found to be one of the most endemic countries in the world, accounting for a sizeable proportion of the global cases, with about 6.7 million patients with glaucoma worldwide (WHO, 1992). The damaging and insidious nature of glaucoma make it spread gradually without being noticed but causes serious harm.
