Barriers to the uptake of eye care services: A cross-sectional survey from rural and urban communities.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

To explore the barriers to the uptake of eye care services in urban and rural communities in Papua New Guinea.

Methods

This was a population-based cross-sectional descriptive study and involved multi-stage sampling. Communities were randomly selected from each of the three clusters of Madang District for free eye care outreaches from June to September 2022. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the outreach patients. The study excluded attendees who refused to consent. Responses were rated from 1 (not a barrier) to 10 (a very strong barrier). The p-value significance was set at ≤ 0.05.

Results

The majority of the 972 participants (60.2%) were from rural communities. The mean age of participants was 40.82 ± 13.14 years. Almost two-thirds of t

SUBMITTER: Owusu-Afriyie B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11326634 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature