TITLE:
Health Seeking Behaviours of Patients Attending Primary Eye Care Centre in Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Emmanuel Olu Megbelayin, Yewande Olubunmi Babalola
KEYWORDS:
HTEMs, Chemists, Hospital, Behaviours
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.2 No.5,
May
6,
2015
ABSTRACT: Purpose: To
determine health seeking behaviour in relation to non-orthodox eye medication
use among patients attending a primary eye health center in Nigeria. Materials
and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study of consecutive respondents.
Participants’ socio-demographic profile, types and pattern of harmful
traditional eye medications (HTEMs) use were obtained using a pretested
questionnaire. Data analysis was by SPSS version 20.0. Results: Of the 303
patients enrolled in the study, 153 (50.5%) were males and 150 (49.5%) were
females. The age range was from 13 years old to 94 years old with a mean of
53.8 ± 17.05 years old. Majority of the subjects (74.3%) used orthodox medical
outfits for their eye care needs. The prevalence of use of HTEMs was 11.9%.
Common forms of TEMs used were herbs 24 (66.7%), sugar water 3 (8.3%), breast
milk 3 (8.3%) and onions 6 (16.7%). There was statistically significant association
between age and use of HTEMs (p = 604.27, X2=p = 808.70, X2=