Ocular Status, Ocular Health Seeking Behavior and Barriers to Uptake Eye Care Services among Garment Workers in Bangladesh

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find out the ocular status, ocular health-seeking behaviors and barriers to the uptake of eye care services among garment workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Methods: This is a descriptive community-based study. The study was conducted at Savar and Narayangonj in Dhaka city where garment workers are living. There were 260 garment workers aged from 18 to 60 years were screened their eyes. They were also interviewed face to face in a structured questionnaire to collect information about health-seeking behaviors and identify the barriers to the uptake of eye care services. Result: Among 260 respondents, about 45.77% were male and 54.23% were female. About 45.4% had ocular complaints and 54.6% had no complaints. Among the respondents (n=260), related ocular abnormalities were 37.70%, (n=98), the diagnosed problems were Refractive error (10.0%), Allergic conjunctivitis (1.5%), Squint (0.4%), conjunctivitis (0.4%), cataract (1.9%), However (10.40%) were referred to the eye care center, 31.90% were given optical correction and 57.70% were given general measure. 86% never went to hospital. The main reasons assigned for not going to an eye doctor 6.7% were financial constraints, 67.9% did not feel necessary, 3.1% were lack of escort, 16.1% had lack of time, the traditional belief was 2.2%, and 4% were not aware of a hospital doctor. Most of the workers conceived that the recent cost of treatment is very high. They desired low treatment costs, free spectacles, and free eye camps including more facilities. Conclusion: Relative to studies of other occupational groups in middle-income countries, these garment workers reported overall good health; their most notable problem was musculoskeletal symptoms and refractive error and the near point of convergence insufficiency which means early presbyopia. Keywords: Refractive Error, Presbyopia, Eye Care, Barriers.