Pattern of pre-hospital consultation among ophthalmic patients seen in a tertiary hospital in South West Nigeria.

This hospital based study aimed to seek information on the factors influencing non-doctor consultation practices in South West Nigeria. A high prevalence of such practices and the attendant public health significance have been reported in different regions of the world, yet studies related to this are generally lacking in this region. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 142 ophthalmic patients presenting newly to the out-patient unit of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria. Information were obtained on demographic data, health care facilities visited before presenting to the eye clinic, drugs prescribed, and reasons for consulting such facilities. The age of the participants ranged from 16 to 85 years with a mean of 44.79 years (SD 17.25 years). 32 (22.5%) of these had not used any pre-visit consultation. 110(77.5%) had consulted one form of health care provider or the other, with only 48 of them (43.6%) having consulted allopathic doctors. 62 (56.4%) had consulted alternative practitioners. Thus 43.7% of the patients practiced non-doctor consultation. The main reasons given for engaging in non-doctor consultation are 'problem not serious' (25.8%), 'no nearby hospital' (25.8%), and 'to save time' (21.0%). Non-doctor consultation practices are prevalent in South West Nigeria as in many other developing regions of the world. Ignorance and inadequate health care providers contribute a great deal to this. Increased public enlightenment, making health care services available and accessible to the populace and stricter government policies on drug dispensing will go a long way in reducing these practices.