Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess the most common types of vision impairment (VI) and their incidence in patients who attended the Al-Aqiq Hospital (AqH) eye clinic and to compare the results with other clinics inside and outside Saudi Arabia (KSA).
Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted using the recorded data of patients who visited the AqH eye clinic for eye care from 2021 to 2022.
Results: The study sample included 1,711 patients; among them, female responses (n = 879, 51.4%) outnumbered male responses (n = 832, 48.6%). Most patients were Saudi (n = 1,403, 82.0%), with a mean age of 34.63 ± 21.90 years in women and 36.15 ± 23 years in men. Refractive error (RE) was the most common VI (31%), followed by red eye and allergy (15.7%). Blindness, amblyopia, and age-related macular degeneration were the least common disorders (2%). Other presentations of VI such as corneal dystrophies and infections, constituted 10.5% of patients, while 9.1% of patients did not have VI. In the defined data, presbyopia was the most common type of RE (9.8%), followed by stigmatism (4%). Among female patients, RE, dry eye (DR), trauma, DR, and glaucoma were more common among male patients.
Conclusions: The incidence of VI was higher among female and Saudi patients at the AqH eye clinic. The most common cause of VI was RE, while amblyopia was the least common cause. The rate of routine follow-up was higher than elsewhere in KSA, indicating a high level of knowledge about eye health care.

Key words: Vision impairment, Al-Aqiq Hospital, Al-Baha, refractive error, amblyopia