Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic imposed some challenges on the mobility of people with blindness and visual impairment (BVI). Compliance with social distance epidemiological guidelines proved to ...be especially troublesome for those with BVI. Objective: The goal of this research was to determine the differences between specific demographic groups of people with BVI before and during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in everyday mobility, to identify the groups most affected. Methods: Forty-five people with BVI members of the Croatian Blind Union completed the questionnaire describing their pre-pandemic and lockdown independent everyday mobility activity frequencies on a 5-point Likert scale along with demographic questions in May 2020. Wilcoxon signed ranks test and paired samples t-test were used to test differences before and during the pandemic lockdown on average scale results for demographic groups. Results: A decline in independent everyday mobility between before and during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown was shown for the total sample of people with BVI. When considering demographic groups both those with blindness and low vision, non-married and married, females, participants living in apartments, employed and unemployed participants, and participants living in a household with two members showed a statistically significant decline in independence during the pandemic. Males, retired participants, and participants older than 40, living alone in a house did not show a statistically significant decline. Conclusion: The decline in mobility functioning implies possible long-term effects of the pandemic lockdown on specific groups of people with BVI and additional support needed after the lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the measures of social distancing and national lockdown had a significant impact on everyday life. Individuals with BVI (blindness and visual ...impairment) are assumed to face increased barriers in numerous domains of their lives. This online survey research investigates, among Hungarian adults with BVI (N = 132), the impact of the lockdown on their access to shopping, daily support needs, access to remote studies of higher education or work, and leisure habits. Respondents accounted for negative impacts of the lockdown on their participation and independence in all research topics. Issues of accessibility were common both concerning shopping for essential goods and access to remote study and work.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a major microvascular complication of diabetes, has a significant impact on the world's health systems. Globally, the number of people with DR will grow from 126.6 million ...in 2010 to 191.0 million by 2030, and we estimate that the number with vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR) will increase from 37.3 million to 56.3 million, if prompt action is not taken. Despite growing evidence documenting the effectiveness of routine DR screening and early treatment, DR frequently leads to poor visual functioning and represents the leading cause of blindness in working-age populations. DR has been neglected in health-care research and planning in many low-income countries, where access to trained eye-care professionals and tertiary eye-care services may be inadequate. Demand for, as well as, supply of services may be a problem. Rates of compliance with diabetes medications and annual eye examinations may be low, the reasons for which are multifactorial. Innovative and comprehensive approaches are needed to reduce the risk of vision loss by prompt diagnosis and early treatment of VTDR.
Turning the tide of corneal blindness Oliva, Matthew S; Schottman, Tim; Gulati, Manoj
Indian journal of ophthalmology,
09/2012, Volume:
60, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Corneal diseases represent the second leading cause of blindness in most developing world countries. Worldwide, major investments in public health infrastructure and primary eye care services have ...built a strong foundation for preventing future corneal blindness. However, there are an estimated 4.9 million bilaterally corneal blind persons worldwide who could potentially have their sight restored through corneal transplantation. Traditionally, barriers to increased corneal transplantation have been daunting, with limited tissue availability and lack of trained corneal surgeons making widespread keratoplasty services cost prohibitive and logistically unfeasible. The ascendancy of cataract surgical rates and more robust eye care infrastructure of several Asian and African countries now provide a solid base from which to dramatically expand corneal transplantation rates. India emerges as a clear global priority as it has the world's largest corneal blind population and strong infrastructural readiness to rapidly scale its keratoplasty numbers. Technological modernization of the eye bank infrastructure must follow suit. Two key factors are the development of professional eye bank managers and the establishment of Hospital Cornea Recovery Programs. Recent adaptation of these modern eye banking models in India have led to corresponding high growth rates in the procurement of transplantable tissues, improved utilization rates, operating efficiency realization, and increased financial sustainability. The widespread adaptation of lamellar keratoplasty techniques also holds promise to improve corneal transplant success rates. The global ophthalmic community is now poised to scale up widespread access to corneal transplantation to meet the needs of the millions who are currently blind.
Purpose: Findings from cross-sectional blindness prevalence surveys are at risk of several biases that cause the study estimate to differ from the 'true' population prevalence. For example, response ...bias occurs when people who participate ('responders') differ from those who do not ('non-responders') in ways that affect prevalence estimates. This study aimed to assess the extent to which response bias is considered and occurs in blindness prevalence surveys in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science for cross-sectional blindness prevalence surveys undertaken in LMICs and published 2009-2017. From included studies, we recorded and descriptively analysed details regarding enumeration processes, response, and non-response, including the impact of non-response on results.
Results: Most (95%) of the 92 included studies reported a response rate (median 91.7%, inter-quartile range 85.9-95.6%). Approximately half clearly described enumeration processes (49%), and reported at least one strategy to increase the response rate (53%); a quarter (23%) statistically compared responders and non-responders. When differential response was assessed, men were more likely to be non-responders than women. Two-thirds (65%) of the time a sociodemographic difference was found between responders and non-responders, a difference in blindness prevalence was also found. Only 13 studies (14%) commented on implications of non-response on prevalence estimates.
Conclusions: Response rates are commonly reported from blindness prevalence surveys, and tend to be high. High response rates reduce-but do not eliminate-the risk of response bias. Assessment and reporting of potential response bias in blindness prevalence surveys could be greatly improved.
For children with blindness and visual impairment (BVI) of all ages, disability sport and/or regular Physical Activity (PA) are deemed beneficial, promoting physical and mental health as well as ...increasing wellbeing and life satisfaction. In this regard, Physical Education (PE) serves as a foundation to regular and lifelong participation in PA, mainstream and/or disability sport. Research points towards manifold participation barriers for children with BVI in PE, which so far have mainly been investigated in inclusive settings and from the perspectives of sighted parents, teachers and peers. Consequently, people with BVI frequently consider PE a missed opportunity for lifelong PA. As transitioning from general to special schooling deems the only alternative to continue their education, questions arise in how far and in which ways specialized schools manage to accommodate their needs in PE. To address these gaps in literature, we investigated BVI students' perceived opportunities and barriers to participation in PE within a specialized school setting and their imaginations for possible (digital) improvements and solutions.
Within the framework of Inclusive and Youth Participatory Action Research, we adopted the Mosaic Approach to investigate a sample of 19 students aged 14-20 at lower and upper secondary level in a specialized school in Austria. Data material included audio-recordings of interviews, student-guided school tours, photographs of significant places and objects and field protocols. The analysis was conducted with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
Through the analysis, we identified three themes. The data material firstly revealed the complex intricacies of how PE teachers can act as facilitators and gatekeepers to autonomous PA. Secondly, material norms function not only as barriers to participation even in a specialized school setting, but also constitute the basis for social hierarchies between students with various degrees of visual impairment. Thirdly, students imagined manifold digital solutions to enhance participation derived from their perceived barriers. The findings contribute to amplifying BVI individuals' voices and provide revealing insights in how participation in PA is enabled and prohibited for students with BVI which can not only help to improve specialized but also inclusive settings.
Blindness is a major global public health problem and recent estimates from World Health Organization (WHO) showed that in India there were 62 million visually impaired, of whom 8 million are blind. ...The Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study (APEDS) provided a comprehensive estimate for prevalence and causes of blindness for the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP). It also highlighted that uptake of services was also an issue, predominantly among lower socio-economic groups, women, and rural populations. On the basis of this analysis, L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) developed a pyramidal model of eye care delivery. This article describes the LVPEI eye care delivery model. The article discusses infrastructure development, human resource development, and service delivery (including prevention and promotion) in the context of primary and secondary care service delivery in rural areas. The article also alludes to opportunities for research at these levels of service delivery and the amenability of the evidence generated at these levels of the LVPEI eye health pyramid for advocacy and policy planning. In addition, management issues related to the sustainability of service delivery in rural areas are discussed. The article highlights the key factors required for the success of the LVPEI rural service delivery model and discusses challenges that need to be overcome to replicate the model. The article concludes by noting the potential to convert these challenges into opportunities by integrating certain aspects of the existing healthcare system into the model. Examples include screening of diabetes and diabetic retinopathy in order to promote higher community participation. The results of such integration can serve as evidence for advocacy and policy.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an implicit measure of attitudes about the competence of people who are blind, to be used with employers, and to report on these ...implicit attitudes with a national sample of employers. Method: A sample of 343 employers (i.e., business professionals responsible for making hiring decisions) participated in an online survey that involved answering questions and completing formal instruments, including explicit and implicit attitude measures about blind employees and a knowledge measure about how blind people can perform typical work tasks. The implicit measure was an Implicit Association Test-Blind/Visually Impaired (the IAT-BVI) that was developed for this study. Results: Employers have strong negative implicit attitudes about the competence of people who are blind, with results indicating a very large IAT effect. These implicit attitudes were not associated with personal characteristics, exposure to people who are blind, or explicit attitudes. Implicit attitudes were significantly associated with knowledge about how blind people perform work tasks and, for employers who had hired a blind person, performance ratings of those employees. Conclusions: Employers' implicit attitudes about the competence of blind people were mostly unrelated to other measures, as expected, with the exception of knowledge and performance ratings of blind employees. These findings provide support for the validity of the IAT-BVI, and indicate the importance of rehabilitation professionals working with employers to provide education about how blind people perform work tasks as a potential avenue to improve employment opportunities for people who are blind.
Impact and Implications
Employers' attitudes toward people with disabilities are a popular research topic, as these attitudes are assumed to contribute to the consistently low levels of employment for this population. However, employer attitudes have only been evaluated thus far with explicit, or self-report, measures. This is the first study to evaluate employers' implicit attitudes about a specific population of people with disabilities: those who are blind or visually impaired. Employers' implicit attitudes about the competence of people who are blind or visually impaired are strongly negative, and these attitudes are associated with knowledge about how blind people can perform work tasks (as knowledge increases, implicit attitudes improve). Therefore, providing education to employers about how blind people can perform work tasks may improve their implicit attitudes and increase blind job candidates' chances to be considered for employment.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
Uncorrected refractive errors Naidoo, Kovin S; Jaggernath, Jyoti
Indian journal of ophthalmology,
09/2012, Volume:
60, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Global estimates indicate that more than 2.3 billion people in the world suffer from poor vision due to refractive error; of which 670 million people are considered visually impaired because they do ...not have access to corrective treatment. Refractive errors, if uncorrected, results in an impaired quality of life for millions of people worldwide, irrespective of their age, sex and ethnicity. Over the past decade, a series of studies using a survey methodology, referred to as Refractive Error Study in Children (RESC), were performed in populations with different ethnic origins and cultural settings. These studies confirmed that the prevalence of uncorrected refractive errors is considerably high for children in low-and-middle-income countries. Furthermore, uncorrected refractive error has been noted to have extensive social and economic impacts, such as limiting educational and employment opportunities of economically active persons, healthy individuals and communities. The key public health challenges presented by uncorrected refractive errors, the leading cause of vision impairment across the world, require urgent attention. To address these issues, it is critical to focus on the development of human resources and sustainable methods of service delivery. This paper discusses three core pillars to addressing the challenges posed by uncorrected refractive errors: Human Resource (HR) Development, Service Development and Social Entrepreneurship.
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