Visual impairment and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care units at health institutions in Gondar City Administration, Northwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Visual impairment is a major public health concern among women of reproductive age groups in Ethiopia, which is getting worse during pregnancy. Though visual impairment has lots of serious consequences across the life course of pregnant women, there is no previous study on this topic in Ethiopia. Thus, this study determined the prevalence of visual impairment and identified associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care units at the governmental health institutions in Gondar City Administration, Northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted. A systematic random sampling technique was used to recruit the study participants. We used an interviewer-administered questionnaire comprising of socio-demographic, clinical and pregnancy-related variables to collect the required data. Snellen's illiterate "E" chart was used to determine visual impairment. EpiData 3 and Stata 14 were used for data entry and statistical analysis, respectively. Both bivariable and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were executed to identify associated factors of visual impairment. Variables with a p-value ≤0.05 in the multivariable logistic regression analysis were declared as statistically significant with visual impairment. RESULTS: A total of 417 (response rate = 98.6%) participants were involved in this study, with a median age of 27 years. The overall prevalence of visual impairment was 22.5% (95% CI: 18.5-26.6). Thirty (7.2%) and thirty-two (7.7%) of the study participants had moderate to severe visual impairments in their right and left eyes, respectively. Participants aged from 31 to 49 years (AOR = 2.1; 95% CI: 1.1-4.0), being 3rd trimester (AOR = 2.4; 95% CI: 1.3-4.5), multi & grand multipara (AOR = 2.3; 95% CI: 1.2-4.6), and history of contraceptive use (AOR = 2.7; 95% CI: 1.2-6.3) had higher chance of visual impairment. CONCLUSION: The magnitude of visual impairment among pregnant women was high in the study area. Therefore, routine screening and evaluation of pregnant women for visual condition during antenatal care visits is recommended. Further investigations of visual changes, particularly as a result of pregnancy, are warranted.