Hyderabad: The burden of near visual impairment (NVI) is 58.3 per cent in rural Telangana while the service delivery programmes of eye screening have not been effective in 123 clusters of the 5,140 participants in the state, according to a study by L V Prasad Eye Institute in collaboration with other research institutes and trusts.
NVI is a common condition and the study was aimed to assess the prevalence and also the spectacle coverage in the state. The mean average age of participants was less than 51 years and 2,392 were women.
Adilabad had the highest number of NVIs with 2,665 people suffering from the problem. Dr Swaroop Mathur, senior ophthalmologist said, “In rural areas, eye-check up is not given importance. The public health centres do not have the equipment for eye testing. In the awareness camps held in rural areas, only people having severe eye problems turn up. With this kind of outreach programme it is difficult to penetrate and reach out to many of the people.”
The free specs which are distributed via charity organisations do not show good penetration as the spectacle coverage is only 26.5 per cent. The study brought to light the fact that most of the people had no education and are from the lowest strata of the society.
