Either your web browser doesn't support Javascript or it is currently turned off. In the latter case, please turn on Javascript support in your web browser and reload this page. Free to read. The Upper East Region has one of the highest cataract surgical rates in Ghana. Notwithstanding this, cataract blindness is still a major problem. To determine patient-related barriers to cataract services in the region and their resolution.
Focus Group Discussion FGD and In-depth interviews were used to explore the opinions of 66 cataract patients resident in the region between July and August Purposeful sampling was used in selecting 24 patients in the hospital while a Snowball sampling method was employed on 42 respondents resident in the village communities.
Average age of the respondents was Only 1. It is concluded that further expansion of outreach services, coupled with a more intensive health education is needed to overcome these barriers. Cataract blindness affects some , people living in Ghana with about 21, new cases occurring every year estimated population of 21 million 1 Management largely centers on the removal of the opacified lens and correcting the resulting hypermetropia with an intra-ocular lens implant.
The procedure is one of the few surgical interventions in which cost benefit analysis has extensively been studied. Two of such studies have compared cataract surgery with no surgery at all. Surgical intervention was found to have greater monetary benefits than costs, even without taking into account intangible benefits like increased sight.
These barriers have traditionally been classified into institution-related service provision and patient-related barriers.
