Determinants of Eye Care Service Utilization Among Malawian adults; A Secondary Analysis of the Malawi fifth Integrated Household Survey 2019-2020

PurposeThe aim of the study was to assess the self-reported Eye Care Utilization (ECU) and associated demographic factors among Malawians adults. MethodsThis study utilized secondary data from the Malawi Integrated Health Survey (IHS) 5 2019-2020. We entered age, sex, level of education, residency(urban/rural) and having chronic disease into a logistic regression model and used a confusion matrix to predict the accuracy of the model. ResultsThe prevalence of ECU was 60.6% (95% CI [60.0,61.2]). The model was statistically significant and correctly classified 72 % of the cases. A logistic regression showed that ECU was positively associated with education compared to none (OR=3.6, 95 % CI [3.104-4.097], p<0.001, (OR =6.6), CI [5.927,7.366], p<0.001), male gender compared to females (OR= 1.2, 95% CI [1.104,1.290], p<0.001), urban residence compared to rural areas (OR= 1.2, 95% CI [1.118,1.375], p<0.001). But It was negatively associated with age compared to young adults, middle age (OR =7.5, 95% CI [6.782,8.476], p<0.001), older age (OR=0.9, 95 % CI [0.866,1.035], p<0.001), and having chronic diseases (OR=0.6, 95 % CI= [0.547,0.708], p<0.001). ConclusionSocial support, women empowerment, education, and mobile clinics are key strategic areas that would increase Access to eye care in Malawi. Further studies can investigate ECU among the pediatric population.