Assessment of Resources for Primary Eye Care Delivery in a Rural Area, South East Nigeria

Objectives: To determine the human and material resources available for primary eye care delivery in Nkanu West Local Government Area (LGA), Enugu state. Materials and Methods: This was a Cross-sectional descriptive survey of the health facilities in the area. The location, and distribution of these facilities were determined using the health map of the LGA. At each centre, using a questionnaire, data on human and material resources were obtained. Statistics was performed using Chi-square test for discrete/categorical variables and student t-test for continuous variable. In all comparisons all P values < 0.05 with the associated odds ratios, at 95% confidence intervals was considered statistically significant. Results: There were 119 primary eye care workers (ECW) in Nkanu West LGA out of which 102 participated in the study giving a survey participation rate of 85.7% (102/119). The participants comprised 98 females (96.1%) and 4 males (3.9%), (M: F=1.0:25.0), with a mean age of 33.4 years. The majority of the participants (78.4%) possessed basic qualification of Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW). The health facilities were not evenly distributed in the four health districts. There are 18 PEC facilities, 15(83.3%) stocked some basic drugs used for eye care; none of the centres stocked all the basic drugs. An inventory of equipment for primary eye care delivery in the 18 centres showed that none of the centres had adequate basic equipment. None of the centres had adequate basic material resources for eye care. Conclusion: Human resources were adequate for PEC delivery in the LGA. There were inadequate material resources and uneven distribution of health facilities.