Public awareness, knowledge of availability, and willingness to use neurosurgical care services in Sub-Saharan Africa: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction Low- and middle-income countries bear the majority of neurosurgical disease burden and patients face significant barriers to seeking, reaching, and receiving care. We aimed to understand barriers to seeking care among adult Africans by evaluating the public perception, knowledge of availability, and readiness to use neurosurgical care services. Methods An e-survey was distributed among African adults who are not in the health sector or pursuing a health-related degree. Chi-square test and ANOVA were used for bivariate analysis and the alpha value was set at 0.05. Odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Results Six hundred and sixty-two adults from 16 African countries aged 25.4 (95% CI: 25.0, 25.9) responded. The majority lived in urban settings (90.6%) and were English-speaking (76.4%) men (54.8%). Most respondents (76.3%) could define neurosurgery adequately. The most popular neurosurgical diseases were traumatic brain injury (76.3%), congenital brain and spine diseases (67.7%), and stroke (60.4%). Unwillingness to use or recommend in-country neurosurgical services was associated with rural dwelling (β = -0.69, SE = 0.31, P = 0.03), lack of awareness about the availability of neurosurgeons in-country (β = 1.02, SE = 0.20, P<0.001), and believing neurosurgery is expensive (β = -1.49, SE = 0.36, P<0.001). Conclusion Knowledge levels about neurosurgery are satisfactory; however, healthcare-seeking is negatively impacted by multiple factors.

Medical Tourism Challenges After the Prevalence of COVID-19: The Neurosurgery Field

“…It can be concluded that most medical travels are due to low cost and high quality of services. 20 A study in Nigeria by Idowu and Fatai Adeniyi indicated that governments in different countries should have laws to ensure that medical tourists receive proper care and followup treatment. 21 In South Africa, Makinde reported that the increase in the use of the Internet and social media, the existence of a legal framework, the improved laws of medical tourism agencies, and skilled human resources were among the factors that improved the medical tourism status.…”