Awareness, attitude, and behavior o­n eyecare, especially child eyecare in Haiphong city and Thai Nguyen province

Vu Thi Minh Hanh and colleagues

Objectives

To study the knowledge, attitude, and practice behavior o­n eyecare, especially child eyecare among population groups and health workers; To identify capacity of service providers and accessibility to eyecare services; To recommend solutions for strengthening information, education and communication (IEC) activities that help people get better access to quality eyecare services.

Methods

Group discussion, in-depth interview, household survey at two provinces of Hai Phong and Thai Nguyen.

Results

- More than 50% of respondents understood common eye-related diseases in adults and children and causes of morbidities and blindness. Approximately 55% of respondents reported having heard of/known about eyecare.

- Majority of respondents reported not having the habit of eye check regularly.

- When having eye problems, 10% of respondents reported “doing nothing” and 20% reported self-treatment.

- More than 2/3 of respondents reported that they had gone to commune health station for eye checking when having eye problems. The main reason for selecting commune health station was no waiting time and low payment. Few respondents reported having gone to private eye clinics.

- The capacity of eyecare services provision of health facilities at different levels did not meet people’s demand.

Recommendations

- Strengthening training for health workers at different levels o­n eye preventive care; Providing more equipment and facilities for eyecare facilities at all levels, especially for commune/ward level.

- Strengthening and maintaining the operation of school health unit.

- Improving IEC o­n eyecare in general and child eyecare in particular in community.

Other news:

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• An assessment of alcohol abuse in Vietnam (20/03/2009)
• Indicators based survey serving the National Target Programs to 2010 and vision to 2020 (20/03/2009)
• Impacts of resources and socioeconomic factors on eyecare and blindness prevention and control (20/03/2009)
• The need for safety equipments at home and in farming activities (03/08/2006)