Perceptions of Eye Health and Eye Health Services among Adults Attending Outreach Eye Care Clinics in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Purpose: To determine how people attending outreach eye care clinics in Papua New Guinea (PNG) perceive eye health and eye health services.

Methods: An interview-based questionnaire was administrated to a convenience sample of 614 adult participants across four provinces and perceptions of eye health and eye health services were recorded. Presenting and near visual acuity were measured and cause of visual impairment (VI) determined.

Results: In this sample, 113/614 participants (18.4%) presented with distance VI, 16 (2.6%) with distance blindness, and 221 (47.6%) with near VI. Older participants and those with near VI were more likely to indicate that it is hard to have an eye examination due to travel time, lack of transport and transport costs. Female participants and those from underserved areas were more likely to report shame and fear of jealousy from others when asked about their attitudes towards spectacles. Participants reporting that they were willing to pay higher amounts for testing and spectacles/treatment also reported higher education levels, higher household incomes and were more likely to be male. A quarter of participants (25.9%) indicated that they did not like having an eye examination because their reading and writing was poor.

Conclusions: People attending outreach eye care clinics in PNG reported finding it difficult to attend eye health services due to transport difficulties and anticipated high costs. Negative attitudes towards spectacles were also prevalent, and negative perceptions appeared more frequently among older participants and those with less education.

• Barriers
• eye care
• knowledge
• Papua New Guinea
• perceptions

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge PNG Eye Care for providing on the ground logistic support and supplying low cost spectacles to participants. The authors also acknowledge the assistance provided by Sameera Sultana, Parthasarathi Kalaiselvan, Rod O’Connor, and the survey teams. We thank Vilas Kovai and Judith Flannagan for reviewing the manuscript and we thank the reviewers for their constructive comments.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

This study was supported by an Avoidable Blindness Initiative research grant through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government (Grant number 49994).