Mapping human resources for eye health in 21 countries of sub-Saharan Africa: current progress towards VISION 2020

Table 5 Mean practitioner to population ratios according to development characteristics

	Ophthalmologists				Cataract surgeons				OCOs				Ophthalmic nurses				Optometrists				ML refractionists
	n	Mdn	min to max	P-value	n	Mdn	min to max	P-value	n	Mdn	min to max	P-value	n	Mdn	min to max	P-value	n	Mdn	min to max	P- value	n	Mdn	min to max	P-value
African region (UN)
Northern	1	8.8		0.0063 ^a	0			0.3545	0			-	1	1.5		0.0012 ^a	1	8.8		0.8312	1	1.1		0.6605
Western	7	2.8	0.8 to 4.3		4	1.3	0.3 to 7.3		0				8	8.8	6.8 to 22.0		4	0.6	0.3 to 4.5		5	2.1	0.3 to 5.4
Middle	1	1.0			1	0.8			0				1	1.9			0				1	1.8
Eastern	10	1.2	0.3 to 2.1		9	0.6	0.3 to 2.2		7	2.6	0.6 to 6.2		7	2.4	0.1 to 6.2		6	1.0	0.1 to 3.8		8	1.0	0.1 to 8.8
Southern	1	4.9			0				0				1	45.9			1	5.9			1	8.9
Language of education
English	12	1.5	0.3 to 8.8	0.4469	9	0.6	0.3 to 7.3	0.7576	6	1.8	0.6 to 6.2	0.3173	12	4.7	0.1 to 45.9	0.4606	7	3.8	0.1 to 8.8	0.0588	11	2.1	0.2 to 8.9	0.8961
French	7	2.2	0.8 to 4.3		4	1.2	0.3 to 2.0		1	5.4			5	7.6	1.9 to 13.0		4	0.5	0.3 to 0.8		4	1.6	0.3 to 5.4
Horn of Africa	1	1.3			1	0.6			0				1	2.8			1	0.3			1	0.1
National training school for cadre exists
0	4	1.5	0.3 to 4.9	0.5708	5	1.0	0.3	0.5582	1	0.6		0.1573	2	4.5	2.0 to 6.9	0.7656	6	1.1	0.1 to 5.9	0.6310	4	1.0	0.1 to 5.4	0.6015
≥ 1	16	1.5	0.5 to 8.8	0.5708	8	0.7	0.3 to 7.3	0.5582	4	5.1	0.8 to 6.2	0.1573	15	6.2	0.1 to 45.9	0.7656	6	2.2	0.3 to 8.8	0.6310	11	1.5	0.2 to 8.8	0.6015

Table legend: countries with ≤ one practitioner in any cadre have been excluded from analyses. Regional comparisons tested were western versus eastern and language comparisons were English versus French, because of small numbers in other categories. Median ratios were used rather than means because data was not normally distributed. P-values in bold indicate significance at the 10% level, ^aat 5%, using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. CO: clinical officer; max, maximum; Mdn: median; min, minimum; ML: mid-level; OCOs, ophthalmic clinical officers.

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