Perception and Barriers to Spectacle for Remedy to Refractive Eye Problems among Patients Accessing Refration at the Ophthalmology Units of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital and Specialist Hospital Bauchi, Bauchi State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Spectacles stands as the economical, effective and generally tolerable method of refractive errors correction. The research purpose is to appraise the perception of spectacle lens for remedy to refractive errors among patients accessing refraction at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital and Specialist Hospital Bauchi.  Methods: The study adopted descriptive survey research design; with convenient and purposive sampling techniques in participants’ selection. Three hundred and eighty-four (384) male and female patients, aged 18 to 80 years, accessing refraction at the Ophthalmology Units of the hospitals comprised the respondents; with average age of 46.0±15.4 years and 47.9% were females. Questionnaire generated through the literature review was adopted in accessing the participants’ demographics, perception and barriers to spectacles utilisation. Relationships between outcome variables were investigated using Pearson chi-square test at 95% confidence level and p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.  Results: Great number of the respondents (80.0%) were of the perception that spectacle lens would worsen their vision, but the elderly age group (87.5%), secondary (66.7%) and tertiary (75.0%) educational levels disagreed. There was association between respondents’ educational level and perception of spectacles in the area of ‘spectacle inconveniences and would lead to blindness (X 2=66.79, p-value=0.0000).  Conclusion: Educational level and age played significant role in the respondents’ positive perception of spectacle lens for refractive errors’ correction. The study recommended patients counselling on the benefits of managing refractive errors with spectacles so as to eliminate associated misconceptions with its use.