Article Sidebar
Published:
Dec 14, 2021DOI:
10.4314/ahs.v21i4.47Keywords:
Article Details
While African Health Sciences has been freely accessible online there have been questions on whether it is Open Access or not. We wish to clearly state that indeed African Health Sciences is Open Access. There are key issues regarding Open Access needing clarification for avoidance of doubt:
- 1. Henceforth, papers in African Health Sciences will be published under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on https://creativecomons.org/)
- 2. The copyright owners or the authors grant the 3rd party (perpetually and in advance) the right to disseminate, reproduce, or use the research papers in part or in full, format/medium as long as:
- No substantive errors are introduced in the process
- Attribution of authorship and correct citation details are given
- The referencing details are not changed.
Should the papers be reproduced in part, this must be clearly stated.
- 3. The papers will be freely and universally accessible online in an easily readable format such as XML in at least one widely recognized open access repository such as PUBMED CENTRAL.
B. ABRIDGED LICENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUTHORS AND African Health Sciences
I submitted my manuscript to African Health Sciences and would like to affirm that:
1.0 I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
2.0 I guarantee, on behalf of self and co-authors:
- That the paper is original, and has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal; nor is it under consideration by other journal (s). It does not infringe existing copyright or any other person’s rights
- That we are/I am the sole author(s) of the paper and with authority to enter into this agreement. My granting rights to African Health Sciences is not in breach of any other obligation
- That the paper contains nothing unlawful, or libelous. Nor anything that would constitute a breach of contract, confidence or commitment given to secrecy, if published
- That I/we have taken care to ensure the integrity of the article.
3.0 I and all co-authors, agree that the paper, if accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. (see https://creativecommons.org/)
Main Article Content
A systemic review of barriers to accessing paediatric eye care services in African countries
Abstract
Background: Global estimate reported that 1.4 million children are blind of which three-quarters live in developing countries. Childhood Visual Impairment is a major public health problem globally especially in rural areas of developing countries.
Objective: To review barriers to accessing paediatric eye care services in African countries
Methods: The studies in this review were searched in online databases (PubMed, Web of Sciences, ProQuest, Scopus, Google Scholar, African Index Medicus and Medline) for studies published between January 2000 and April 2020. The articles included in this review, which was conducted in Africa to assess the barriers for accessing paediatric eye care services with regards availability, accessibility, affordability, socio cultural barriers of parents/caregivers and community.
Results: Of 22 705 articles screened, the study found 29 publications from 10 African countries which met the inclusion criteria. The main barriers were non-availability, non-accessibility, and non-affordability of paediatric eye care services. The studies reviewed revealed that there are other factors affecting the utilization of paediatric eye services which include the primary health system, geographic barriers, health beliefs, perception of parents; lack of knowledge, attitudes and practices about paediatric eye care. Furthermore, environmental, demographic barriers and socio-economic status has negative impact on accessing paediatric eye care services in African counties.
Conclusion: The main barriers to accessing paediatric eye care services in Africa were affordability, accessibility and availability. There is therefore a need for all relevant stakeholders to play a significant role in addressing barriers to child eye care
in African countries.
Keywords: Paediatric eye care; Africa; availability; accessibility; affordability; visual impairment; refractive errors.
