Abstract
Background: Cost recovery for cataract surgery will have significant input towards a sustainable eye care system; therefore it is important to assess the willingness to pay of patients with cataract blindness for cataract surgery. Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted in two outreach sites in South West Ethiopia to determine their willingness to pay for cataract surgery. Consecutive patients who had mature senile cataract and came to two outreach program sites were included in the study. Results: A total of 134 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 62.5years (SD=9.4). The majority, 86 (64.2 %), were males making the male to female ratio 1.79:1. A total of 102 (76.1%) participants of the study said that they were willing to pay for their cataract surgery. Males were more willing to pay as compared to females (83.7% vs. 62.5%, p=0.006). Those with low socio-economic conditions were less willing to pay (p< 0.05). Willingness to pay was not associated with the age (p= 0.25), literacy (p=0.66), religion (0.3), or family size (0.43) of the participants. On multiple logistic regression analysis, however, only being a female and also having a low socioeconomic status were significantly associated with not willing to pay. Conclusions: A good proportion of the rural residents were willing to pay for their cataract surgery. Being female and having lower socio- economic status are associated with not willingness to pay.
Highlights
Cost recovery for cataract surgery will have significant input towards a sustainable eye care system; it is important to assess the willingness to pay of patients with cataract blindness for cataract surgery
The only effective treatment of cataract is surgery and it is widely known that cataract surgery is one of the most cost effective interventions in medicine [3,4].The amount spent for the surgery for restoring vision to the cataract blind is said to be a fraction of what can be lost from a cataract blind person in terms of his/her productivity
A recent study done in Central Ethiopia identified cost of surgery (91.8%), insufficient family income (78.1%) and the distance to hospital (47.9%) as the three major factors that delayed cataract surgery [5], while another study has found that the main barrier for seeking service is related to the indirect medical costs of the service [6]
Summary
Cost recovery for cataract surgery will have significant input towards a sustainable eye care system; it is important to assess the willingness to pay of patients with cataract blindness for cataract surgery. The aim of cataract surgery is to rehabilitate blind or visually impaired people by restoring their sight to normal or as near to normal as possible. There are numerous reasons why patients who are blind and visually impaired from un-operated cataract do not receive the surgical services they need. A recent study done in Central Ethiopia identified cost of surgery (91.8%), insufficient family income (78.1%) and the distance to hospital (47.9%) as the three major factors that delayed cataract surgery [5], while another study has found that the main barrier for seeking service is related to the indirect medical costs of the service [6]. Apart from the indirect costs, patient costs for cataracts include the costs of supplies and equipment related to the surgical procedures
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