Challenges and Opportunities of the Blind in Access for Labeled Prescriptions and Pharmaceutical Related Information in Addis Ababa
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Date
2015-06
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Addis Ababa
Abstract
The aim of this study was identifying the challenges and opportunities of access of labeled
prescription and pharmaceutical related information for the blind in Addis Ababa. With the
assumption of meeting the purpose, quantitative and qualitative methods were applied. The
researcher selected three groups of respondents. They were: thirty blind people, ninety two
pharmacists and two key government offices (i.e. Ministry of health and Ethiopian food and
drugs control authority). A questionnaire that include demographic characteristics of the
respondents, barriers and opportunities the blind have to access for labeled prescriptions and
pharmaceutical related information presented in an open-ended, FGD, interview and liker scales
were designed. After the data has been collected, analysis was made. Data from the quantitative
survey were analyzed using percentages, mean; standard deviations and t-test .While the
qualitative using inductive thematic analysis. Thus, the t-test result shows pharmacies are not
equipped with medicines with various formats (medicines with audio, tactile materials and
Braille writings) that can make access of the blind to such information easier. The study also
found that even though pharmacists prove their readiness to assist the blind, lack of equipments
and consistent polices remains a challenge .The qualitative findings shows the blind are at risk
in their day to day life as a result of missing those assistive aids. This missing information
resulted to taking wrong medicines, inability to identify exact locations of medicines and
difficulty in getting assistance. The research further established marginalization of blind women
is far worse than their male counterparts due to gender-specific challenges. Finally, based on
the major findings, the research comes up with recommendations that help overcome the existing
problems
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Keywords
Pharmaceutical Related Information in Addis Ababa