Eye Conditions among Fire Officers in the Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana

Some occupations pose significant health threats to those involved with them. We investigated the prevalence of eye diseases among the fire service personnel in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. This cross sectional screening - based study involved 160 personnel (115 males and 45 females) with mean (± SD) age of 38.50 ± 9.96 years across 4 fire stations in the region (80% participatory rate). History taken from the participants included their demographics, occupational and ocular history. Eye examinations included visual acuity, anterior segment assessment and funduscopy. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics (version 21.0); we employed descriptive statistics, Fisher’s exact test and Pearson’s correlation. P < 0.05 was considered significant. Overall prevalence of eye conditions was 59.4%. Pterygium was the most prevalence condition (20.0%) and corneal lesions were the least (5.0%). Number of years spent in the work correlated weakly with the number cases of eye conditions [r = -0.23, p = 0.66]. Difference in prevalence of eye diseases among gender groups was significant (p < 0.05). There was an overall high prevalence of eye diseases. We recommend frequent eye examination for fire officers in the area. Keywords: Morbidity; Eye diseases; Pterygium; Occupational hazards; Fire officer