Awareness and knowledge of eye care providers among government workers in Ilorin, Nigeria.

OBJECTIVES

Often the public cannot differentiate among eye care providers with adverse effect on ocular health. This is to ascertain awareness and knowledge of Nigerian public workers about eye care providers.

METHODS

Structured self administered questionnaire on respondents' socio-demography, awareness and knowledge about eye care providers was distributed to 500 consenting public workers in Ilorin, Nigeria.

RESULTS

Four hundred and fifty one respondents, aged 20 to 57 years comprising 213 (50.8%) men and 206 (49.2%) women participated. Majority 348 (87.9%) had tertiary education while the remaining had at least primary education. Most respondents 392 (88.9%) were aware of the availability of eye care providers while 49 (11.1%) were unaware. Based on their knowledge of the eye care providers, three categories of respondents emerged: majority had correct perception, some had wrong perception and some knew nothing about eye care providers. The level of education was found to be significantly associated with the level of awareness and knowledge of the respondents (p< 0.05) while gender was not (p>0.05).

CONCLUSION

Despite the majority of the respondents having good perception of eye care providers, the respondents who had wrong perception and those who were oblivious of eye care providers could be draw backs to eye health care.