Public Awareness, Knowledge of Availability, and Willingness to Use Neurosurgical Care Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Cross-sectional Study

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2022 Mar 17

PMID 35298488

Authors

Chibuikem A Ikwuegbuenyi

Alice Umutoni

Neri Ngole Atabe Ngwene

Placide Ngoma

Arsene Daniel Nyalundja

Daniel Safari Nteranya

Tunde A Olobatoke

Oloruntoba Ogunfolaji

Dawin Sichimba

Joanitor Najjuma

Lorraine Arabang Sebopelo

Aliyu Ndajiwo

Michael A Bamimore

Gideon Adegboyega

Ulrick Sidney Kanmounye

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Introduction: Low- and middle-income countries bear the majority of neurosurgical disease burden and patients face significant barriers to seeking, reaching, and receiving care. We aimed to understand barriers to seeking care among adult Africans by evaluating the public perception, knowledge of availability, and readiness to use neurosurgical care services.

Methods: An e-survey was distributed among African adults who are not in the health sector or pursuing a health-related degree. Chi-square test and ANOVA were used for bivariate analysis and the alpha value was set at 0.05. Odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated.

Results: Six hundred and sixty-two adults from 16 African countries aged 25.4 (95% CI: 25.0, 25.9) responded. The majority lived in urban settings (90.6%) and were English-speaking (76.4%) men (54.8%). Most respondents (76.3%) could define neurosurgery adequately. The most popular neurosurgical diseases were traumatic brain injury (76.3%), congenital brain and spine diseases (67.7%), and stroke (60.4%). Unwillingness to use or recommend in-country neurosurgical services was associated with rural dwelling (β = -0.69, SE = 0.31, P = 0.03), lack of awareness about the availability of neurosurgeons in-country (β = 1.02, SE = 0.20, P<0.001), and believing neurosurgery is expensive (β = -1.49, SE = 0.36, P<0.001).

Conclusion: Knowledge levels about neurosurgery are satisfactory; however, healthcare-seeking is negatively impacted by multiple factors.

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