Background and objectives: Many conditions can affect eye health, and even those that do not cause vision impairment can produce pronounced morbidity. In this study, we have investigated the pattern of eye diseases at an eye out patient department (OPD) in a rural set up.

Materials and methods: Eye OPD runs fortnightly at Rural Health Training Centre of Department of Community Medicine, JNMCH, AMU, Aligarh, India. Record from clinic register and patient files from the year 2016 to 2022 was accessed. Data was entered in SPSS version 20.0 software and analysed.

Results: A total of 694 patients were enrolled in the study. Common ocular morbidities were refractive error (29.5%), presbyopia (21.6%), cataract (16.9%), pterygium (10.2%), conjunctivitis (8.9%) and corneal conditions (4.3%). Prevalence of refractive error was almost same in both male (30.6%) and female (33.1%). Presbyopia was significantly (p<0.05) higher in female (27.2%) compared to male (18.4%) patients while conjunctivitis was significantly (p<0.05) higher among males (15.3% vs. 6.1%). Refractive error and conjunctivitis were significantly (p<0.01) higher among patients aged less than 40 years while presbyopia, cataract and corneal conditions were significantly (p<0.05) higher among patients aged 40 years and above.

Conclusion: A good proportion of patients with unoperated cataract reflect lack of accessible and affordable cataract operation services in rural areas. Findings of the study could be used to strengthen eye care services in rural areas.

January 2025; Vol. 19(1):005.  DOI:https://doi.org/10.55010/imcjms.19.005

*Correspondence: Ragul Jayaprakasam Sathiyamoorthy, Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh,  India. Email: [email protected];

© 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0).