Factors influencing access to diabetic eye care among people living with diabetes attending a tertiary hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: a qualitative study

The increase in prevalence of Diabetes has led to a rise in the burden of blindness due to diabetic retinopathy. Timely access to diabetic eye care may prevent blindness due to diabetic complications, reducing the burden of blindness in countries with limited resources like Tanzania. This study aimed to explore the factors influencing access to diabetic eye care among people living with diabetes attending a tertiary hospital. A total of 14 interviews were conducted with people living with diabetes attending a tertiary hospital from March 2023 to May 2023. Participants were purposively selected during their visits to the eye clinic. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed by qualitative content analysis. Factors influencing access to diabetic eye care among people living with diabetes were reported, including the cost of eye care services, not knowing that diabetes can affect eyes, fear, and having other priorities emerged as barriers to accessing care while referral from primary healthcare workers, eye symptoms, knowing that diabetes can affect eyes, living close to the facility offering eye care services, influence from close relatives, and having health insurance were reported as facilitators to attending diabetic eye care services. Educating people living with diabetes about the importance of diabetic eye care while working toward overcoming the barriers to accessing diabetic eye care will help people living with diabetes access timely diabetic eye care and prevent blindness due to diabetic retinopathy. Future studies should work toward quantifying these influencing factors in a survey and addressing these barriers in implementation studies among people living with diabetes.