Socio-economic factors associated with the degradation of quality of life of individuals with blindness and visual impairment in Yaoundé
1 Department of Public Health, School of Health Sciences, Central Africa Catholic University, Cameroon.
2 Institute for Training and Demographic Research (IFORD), University of Yaoundé II, Cameroon.
Research Article
GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2020, 12(03), 035-043.
Article DOI: 10.30574/gscbps.2020.12.3.0273
Publication history:
Received on 21 August 2020; revised on 09 September 2020; accepted on 12 September 2020
Abstract:
Blindness and visual impairment are currently considered as major health issues worldwide, as they affect all age groups and have a major impact on the quality of life of individuals. The objective of this study was to determine the socio-economic factors associated with the deterioration of quality of life, and to assess blindness and visual impairment influence on the autonomy of individuals. This is a cross-sectional epidemiological study conducted on blind and visual impaired persons in Yaoundé in 2015. A total of 45 visual impairment individuals were interviewed, including 26 men (57.8%) and 19 women (42.2%). The average age was 34.66 ± 10.57 years. Findings showed that there is a relationship between visual impairment and the level of autonomy. The ANOVA test has shown that, there are differences in autonomy according to variables such as occupation (F= 7.303; p= 0.000); education (F= 7.556; p= 0.002); income (F= 21.563; p= 0.000). Blind and visual impaired persons who have sustainable employment, a sufficiently high level of income and a sustainable source of income have a higher level of independence. The socio-economic factors highlighted in this study interact and influence visual impairment persons’ autonomy.
Keywords:
Blindness; Visual impairment; Socio-economic factors; Quality of Life; Autonomy; Yaoundé.
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Copyright © 2020 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0
