Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Oct 23;13(10):e0197945.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197945. eCollection 2018.

Barriers and incentives for conducting research amongst the ophthalmologists in Sub-Sahara Africa

Kazim A Dhalla  1   2 , Micheal Guirguis  3
Affiliations

Barriers and incentives for conducting research amongst the ophthalmologists in Sub-Sahara Africa

Kazim A Dhalla et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Research is a critical component amongst the strategies to improve health outcomes of any country. The role of research assumes greater importance in Africa as it carries a larger share of the global burden of diseases, blindness, and low vision. "Vision 2020- the Right to Sight" is a WHO-IAPB collaborated initiative aiming to eliminate preventable blindness by the year 2020. High quality research in eye care is imperative for the initiative to succeed, however, there is a dearth of research in eye care in sub-Saharan Africa in general and specifically in the Eastern, Central, and Southern African (ECSA) region. Identifying the barriers that hamper research in this region is an important step towards the elimination of preventable blindness.

Methods: A structured questionnaire using the SurveyMonkey program was sent to ophthalmologists in the ECSA region and South Africa through their respective regional professional bodies.

Results: Lack of funding, inadequate time and poor research knowledge were the main research barriers while the ability to improve eye health care through research was the main incentive for conducting research. The response rate for South Africa was low, restricting comparisons with other ECSA countries.

Conclusion: The barriers mainly center on financial, human and administrative infrastructure and resources. In spite of the barriers, ophthalmologists in the study region are enthusiastic in research aiming to increase evidence-based knowledge to improve eye health care in line with the goals of "Vision 2020- the Right to Sight" initiative.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Research barriers.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Incentives to conduct research.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Courtright P, Faal HB. How can we strengthen ophthalmic research in Africa? Can J Ophthalmol. 2006;41(4):424–5. Epub 2006/08/03. 10.1016/S0008-4182(06)80003-7 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Budenz DL, Bandi JR, Barton K, Nolan W, Herndon L, Whiteside-de Vos J, et al. Blindness and Visual Impairment in an Urban West African Population: The Tema Eye Survey. Ophthalmology (Elsevier). 2012;119(9):1744. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Courtright P, Seneadza A, Mathenge W, Eliah E, Lewallen S. Primary eye care in sub-Saharan African: do we have the evidence needed to scale up training and service delivery? Annals of tropical medicine and parasitology. 2013. - PubMed
    1. Mahmoud AO, Ayanniyi AA, Lawal A, Omolase CO, Ologunsua Y, Samaila E. Ophthalmic research priorities and practices in Nigeria: An assessment of the views of Nigerian ophthalmologists. Middle East African journal of ophthalmology. 2011;18(2):164 10.4103/0974-9233.80707 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Palmer JJ, Chinanayi F, Gilbert A, Pillay D, Fox S, Jaggernath J, et al. Mapping human resources for eye health in 21 countries of sub-Saharan Africa: current progress towards VISION 2020. Human Resources for Health. 2014;12(1):1–16. 10.1186/1478-4491-12-44 - DOI - PMC - PubMed