Health Seeking Behaviours of Patients Attending Primary Eye Care Centre in Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: To determine health seeking behaviour in relation to non-orthodox eye medication use among patients attending a primary eye health center in Nigeria. Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study of consecutive respondents. Participants' socio-demographic profile, types and pattern of harmful traditional eye medications (HTEMs) use were obtained using a pre-tested questionnaire. Data analysis was by SPSS version 20.0. Results: Of the 303 patients enrolled in the study, 153 (50.5%) were males and 150 (49.5%) were females. The age range was from 13 years old to 94 years old with a mean of 53.8 ± 17.05 years old. Majority of the subjects (74.3%) used orthodox medical outfits for their eye care needs. The prevalence of use of HTEMs was 11.9%. Common forms of TEMs used were herbs 24 (66.7%), sugar water 3 (8.3%), breast milk 3 (8.3%) and onions 6 (16.7%). There was statistically significant association between age and use of HTEMs (p = 604.27, 2 χ =< 0.001, 95% CI = 0.000-0.010), and health seeking behaviour (p = 808.70, 2 χ =< 0.001, 95% CI = 0.000-0.010). Conclusion: Eye care providers and health care managers must have good knowledge of the various factors that negatively influence utilization of eye care services and be responsive to them.

Choice of Eye Care Giver in A Rural Community of Ebonyi State Nigeria

“…[9] - [14] The poor utilization of orthodox eye care services in this study agrees with most other studies in Nigeria and Africa [17] - [21] ; but conflicts with the study conducted at Afon, a rural community in Kwara state, where most respondents (62.5%) used orthodox eye care services. [9] It has been reported that utilization of existing eye care infrastructure in Nigerian communities is as low as 25% compared to the optimum target utilization set at 90%.…”

“…[1], [14], [15], [16] Non-orthodox eye medications appear to be better patronized probably because they may be more readily available and cheaper. It has also been suggested that the rural dwellers have more trust and confidence in the traditional healers perhaps due to the presumed failure of modern medicine to cure certain eye diseases.…”

Eye health-seeking behaviour of traders in rural Nigeria

“…In Ghana, people living in communities with poor or inaccessible eye care facilities were more likely to seek alternatives to orthodox eye care services including self-medication, traditional healers, itinerant couchers, and patent medicine vendors (PMVs), some of which may be harmful. [ 4 ] Poor eye health-seeking behaviour has been identified in some studies done in Nigeria,[ 5 6 7 8 9 ] including delays in seeking orthodox eye care or not seeking orthodox eye care at all.…”

Risk of senile cataract among nuclear industry workers

“…Катаракта -заболевание, являющееся наиболее частой причиной нарушения зрения в пожилом возрасте и ведущей причиной слепоты [1][2][3]. По данным ВОЗ, удельный вес катаракты в структуре заболеваемости органов зрения составляет 47% [4].…”