Research

The text discusses a study focused on assessing the costs and cost-effectiveness of various strategies to identify and encourage people in India to seek corrective eye services. India has a high prevalence of visual impairment and blindness, and demand-based factors prevent many people from seeking appropriate eye care. The study analyzed five case-finding interventions, including primary eye health facilities (vision centers), school screenings, door-to-door eye screenings, eye camps, and teleophthalmology within vision centers. The findings indicated that eye camps and vision centers were the most cost-effective strategies for identifying and encouraging individuals to seek corrective eye services, particularly for cataracts and uncorrected refractive errors. In contrast, door-to-door and school screenings were less cost-effective, mainly due to higher costs associated with identifying uncorrected refractive errors. The study also estimated the annualized cost of operating a vision center and suggested that India should budget a substantial amount annually to establish and operate a network of vision centers across the country to provide adequate primary eye health services. The results highlighted the importance of cost-effective case-finding strategies in reducing the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment in India.