Eye Care in Tema: What a Landmark Local Study Reveals About Your Vision

By Dr. Virginia Mensah

Ophthalmologist, St. Thomas Eye Hospital — Tema Branch

St. Thomas Eye Hospital, Tema — 1st Floor, Evergreen Shopping Centre, Community 4. Alt text: eye clinic Tema Ghana specialist eye hospital.

Most Tema residents have never heard of the Tema Eye Survey. They should have.

Published in the journal Ophthalmology, it remains one of the most thorough population eye studies ever conducted in West Africa — over 5,600 Tema residents aged 40 and above, examined one by one.

The findings are specific to this city, not a national average, and they tell you almost everything you need to know about your own risk. Here’s what it found, and what it means for anyone living in Tema today.

The Numbers: What the Tema Eye Survey Actually Found

Among Tema residents over 40, the study found:

• 17.1% had visual impairment — vision worse than what’s needed for everyday tasks like reading or recognising faces at a distance.

• 1.2% were classified as blind under WHO criteria.

• After simply correcting refractive error with glasses, those numbers dropped to 6.7% visual impairment and 0.75% blindness.

Read that again. Refractive error — simply needing the right glasses — was the single largest correctable cause of poor vision in Tema. Of everyone found to have severely impaired vision, more than a third could have been fixed with nothing more than an accurate prescription.

Among those whose vision couldn’t be corrected with glasses alone, the underlying causes were cataract, glaucoma, and corneal disease — conditions we cover in detail in our hub article, 6 Reasons Ghanaians Go Blind — and Why None of Them Have To.

What This Means If You Live in Tema

If you’re over 40 and haven’t had your vision checked recently, the data above describes you, specifically — not some abstract national statistic.

There is a meaningfully high chance that a pair of properly fitted glasses would noticeably sharpen your everyday vision, and a smaller but real chance that an undetected condition like glaucoma is quietly progressing.

The same study found glaucoma prevalence in Tema of 6.8% among adults over 40, rising to 14.6% among those over 80. Glaucoma causes no pain and no early symptoms — it’s detected through screening, not by waiting to feel something wrong.

We’ve written extensively about why this matters: 5 Things Most Ghanaians Get Wrong About Glaucoma.

A comprehensive eye examination at St. Thomas Eye Hospital. Alt text: eye examination Tema Ghana ophthalmology clinic.

Why Tema’s Eye Health Profile Looks the Way It Does

Tema isn’t a quiet residential suburb — it’s Africa’s largest man-made harbour, a major industrial and port city that has pulled workers from across Ghana since the 1960s. That history shapes the eye health picture in a few specific ways:

A Working-age, Occupationally Diverse Population

Tema’s economy runs on port operations, freight haulage, manufacturing, and commercial driving — occupations that bring real, specific eye health risks.

Drivers face glare, dust, and long hours of visual strain. Dockworkers and factory staff face foreign body injuries and UV exposure. If your work involves any of this, regular screening matters even before age 40.

Heavy Reliance on Personal and Commercial Vehicles

Tema sits along some of Greater Accra’s busiest arterial roads, including the Tema Motorway. Uncorrected vision — the same refractive error problem the Tema Eye Survey flagged as the city’s top correctable issue — is a road safety issue, not just a quality of life one.

Ghana’s DVLA now requires a certified eye test for every driving licence application or renewal under Regulation 29 of the Road Traffic Regulations, and St. Thomas Eye Hospital Tema can perform and certify this test.

An Ageing Population entering its Highest-Risk Decades for Cataract and Glaucoma

As Tema’s original wave of industrial workers from the 1960s and 70s reaches their 60s, 70s, and 80s, the city is seeing exactly the demographic shift the Tema Eye Survey data predicts — rising cataract and glaucoma prevalence among its older residents.

What’s Available at the Tema Branch

St. Thomas Eye Hospital’s Tema branch, located at the 1st Floor, Evergreen Shopping Centre, Bonwire Close, Community 4, offers the full range of clinical eye care available across our network:

• General ophthalmology consultations and comprehensive eye examinations

• Diabetic and glaucoma screening, including OCT and visual fields testing

• Refraction and spectacle fitting, addressing exactly the correctable refractive error the Tema Eye Survey identified as the city’s leading cause of impaired vision

• DVLA driver’s licence eye testing, certified on-site for new applications and renewals

• Cataract assessment and referral pathway for surgical treatment

• Urgent and emergency eye care for injuries, sudden vision changes, or red eye

For the full list of clinical, laser, and surgical services across our network, see our Services page.

Booking and Opening Hours

Address: 1st Floor, Evergreen Shopping Centre, Bonwire Close, Community 4, Tema (Ghana Post: GT-015-5245)

Phone: (+233) 54 012 5451

Opening Hours: Monday–Friday 7:30am–4:30pm, Saturday 8:30am–12:00pm

You can book directly through our Contact Us page, call the branch line above, or walk in during opening hours. NHIA accreditation applies at this branch, as it does across all St. Thomas Eye Hospital locations.

Should You Get Checked?

Based on what we now know from the Tema Eye Survey specifically, here’s a simple way to think about it:

If you’re over 40 and haven’t had an eye exam in the past two years: book one. The single most common finding will likely be a correctable refractive error — an easy fix with an outsized impact on daily life.

If you work in transport, logistics, or port operations: get screened regardless of age, and renew your driver’s licence eye test on schedule.

If you have a family history of glaucoma: start screening in your 30s. Tema’s data shows glaucoma risk climbing steadily with age — catching it early is the only way to preserve vision that’s already been lost is not possible once damage occurs.

St. Thomas Eye Hospital Tema is located at the 1st Floor, Evergreen Shopping Centre, Bonwire Close, Community 4, Tema. View all branches →

Related Reading

• 6 Reasons Ghanaians Go Blind — and Why None of Them Have To

• 5 Things Most Ghanaians Get Wrong About Glaucoma

• Eye Care in Kumasi: Specialist Surgeons, Real Equipment

• Contact Lenses vs. Glasses in Ghana