Abstract:
Background: Eye health care utilization is the use or consumption of health care services,
procedures, or pharmaceutical drugs for maintaining one's health and wellbeing, preventing and
treating an eye health problem, or getting information about one's eye health state and prognosis
(1).
Objectives: To determine magnitude and associated factors with eye health care utilization of
eye health care service utilization among adult aged 40 and above in Jimma town .
Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among adults aged 40 years
and above who permanently live in Jimma town from August 5 to September 15 2022.
Multistage cluster sampling technique was used to select 460 participants. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The collected data was entered to EPI
info version 3.1 & was analyzed by SPSS version 20. Binary logistic regression model was used
to identify actual predictors of eye care service utilization. All variables were entered to
multivariable analysis and variables with p-value ≤ 0.05 were considered as statistically
significant.
Results: A total of 460 adults were participated in this study. The mean of age of participants
was 52 years old and majority of participants were males accounting for 52.2%. The eye health
care utilization in Jimma town was found to be 29.57% (95% CI 25-34%). Having history of eye
disease {AOR 6.507, 95% CI (3.078-13.756)}, having high monthly income more than 25,001
ETB {AOR 13.878 95% CI; (1.168-164.918)}, being old age (≥65) {AOR 2.069, 95% CI :(
0.958-4.4751)}, having heard the importance of eye checkup {AOR 3.727, 95% CI: (1.878-
7.393)}and knowing when to go eye health center {AOR 2.742, 95% CI: (1.377-5.460)} were
positively associated with eye health care service utilization.
Conclusion: The proportion of eye care service utilization among older adults in Jimma town
was low. Having a history of eye disease, having heard the importance of eye checkup, knowing
when to go eye health center, older age and higher family monthly income were significantly
associated with the utilization of eye health care. Therefore, increasing community awareness on
a regular eye checkup is cornerstone to increase eye health care utilization.
