Only One in Five Primary Health Care Workers Referred Visually Significant Cataract Patients to Spacialized Ophthalmic Center in Central Gondar Zone, Northwest Ethiopia 2023

Background Cataract, opacity of crystalline lens is the leading causes of blindness world-wide and in Ethiopia. Despite the World Health Organization recommended primary eye care to be integrated to the primary health care targeting cataract as one concern, the case detection and referral practice at primary health care facilities towards cataract is low in Ethiopia and the level of referral practice and its associated factors towards cataract was not studied in Ethiopia. Thus, this study was aimed to assess the level of referral practice and associated factors towards cataract among primary health care workers in central Gondar zone, Ethiopia. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted on 284 primary health care workers selected with systematic random sampling, from June to august, 2023. The data were collected with a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire. The data were entered in to EPI info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Binary logistic regression model was fitted to figure out enabling factors for referral practice. The strength of association was expressed by odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and factors with a p- value less 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results Among 284 primary health care workers 96.1% (273) participated in the study with an average age of 30 years. Among 260 study participants 21.9% [95% CI: (17.4–27.2.0)] had good referral practice. It was significantly associated with eye care training [AOR = 3.13, 95%CI: (1.31–7.45)]. Conclusion The study found out that, few of the study participants had good referral practice and it was associated with training. It is better to increase efforts by the concerned body for provision of on service training for primary health care workers on cataract referral scheme.