Open AccessIncorporating primary eye care into primary health care: Piloting a perceived visual disability questionnaire based model in rural southern India – An observational study
Author(s) -
Anika Amritanand,
Padma Paul,
Smitha Jasper,
Samuel Prasanna Vinoth Kumar,
Vinod Joseph Abraham
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
indian journal of ophthalmology/indian journal of ophthalmology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.542
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1998-3689
pISSN - 0301-4738
DOI - 10.4103/ijo.ijo_144_18
Subject(s) - medicine , visual impairment , referral , visual acuity , observational study , optometry , eye examination , refractive error , family medicine , eye care , ophthalmology , psychiatry , pathology
Over 20% of the world's visually impaired and blind populations live in India. Integration of primary eye care (PEC) into existing primary health care by trained personnel could address access-related barriers. We piloted an unreported, modified WHO disability questionnaire-based model for community health workers (CHWs) to screen and refer persons with perceived visual impairment instead of the traditional visual acuity model. The objective of the study was (1) to determine the prevalence of perceived visual impairment, rate of follow-up postreferral, distribution of ocular morbidity, visual impairment, and proportion of appropriate referrals and (2) to compare results of this intervention with those of existing services.