Eye Health Care Utilization and Associated Factors Among Adults Who Live In Jimma Town

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.