Awareness, knowledge, and barriers to low vision services among eye care practitioners

Abstract

Background:Eyesight plays an important role in our day today life. When the vision gets hampered, daily activities of an individual will be affected. The prevalence of visual impairment is increasing across the globe, with more burdens on the developing world. The uptake of low vision services remains to be low in developing countries like India.Methods:A newly constructed questionnaire using information from previously conducted telephonic interviews and article search was administered among 50 eye care practitioners from Kerala, India for the pilot study. Modifications were made in the questionnaire, based on the responses obtained from the pilot study. From their responses, awareness, knowledge, and barriers for the low vision services among eye care practitioners were assessed.Results:(1) Pilot study - the Cronbach's alpha values obtained for knowledge, awareness and barrier questions were 0.814, 0.297, and 0.810, respectively, and content validity index was found to be 0.64. (2) Main study - 211 eye care practitioners from 12 states of India took part in the study that accounted for a response rate of 16.7%. The participants included were 95 (45%) men and 116 (55%) women with a mean age of 28.18 ± 7.04 years. The lack of awareness was found to be the major barrier in the provision and uptake of low vision services from the practitioner's perspective.Conclusion:The study results showed that there is a lack of awareness among eye care practitioners about low vision services, which acts as a major barrier in the effective delivery of these services.

Barriers and enablers to low vision care services in a tertiary eye care hospital: A mixed method study

“…ECPs’ perception and patients’ perception were considered to be an important obstacle in accessing the LVC services by Matti et al ,[7] which is coherent with the current study where ECP's perceived factors like gender, literacy, and low socio-economic status of the patients had influence on the referral. Lack of awareness on available services of LVC was also found to be a barrier among ECPs which correlates with Jose et al [6] Barriers among patients were lack of awareness about the services, compromising the visual demand, and non-referral to LVC services, which was similar to previous studies. [36715] Non-availability of the low vision devices was found to be a barrier in previous studies,[36] but in our study it was not found to be a barrier.…”

“…Lack of awareness on available services of LVC was also found to be a barrier among ECPs which correlates with Jose et al [6] Barriers among patients were lack of awareness about the services, compromising the visual demand, and non-referral to LVC services, which was similar to previous studies. [36715] Non-availability of the low vision devices was found to be a barrier in previous studies,[36] but in our study it was not found to be a barrier. Unlike previous studies, this study does not represent language or medical comorbidities as a barrier.…”

“…Even though, low vision services benefits patients by improving their quality of life,[45] the awareness about the services among eye care practitioners (ECPs)[6] and the uptake of low vision services continues to be relatively low even in developed countries. [3] There is a mismatch between the need and the uptake of low vision services.…”

Availability of low vision services and barriers to their provision and uptake in Ghana: practitioners’ perspectives

“…Most common barriers reported are external to the practitioners themselves and have also been mentioned in other studies. 11 , 12 , 13 These results have implications for planning and implementing low vision services in these regions.…”

“…The design of the questionnaire was based on the review of relevant literature. 9 , 11 , 12 , 13 The survey was preceded by a pilot study conducted among eye care professionals who did not take part in the final study in order to critically evaluate and finalise the questionnaire. All queries from the questionnaire during the pilot study were addressed and the questionnaire adjusted accordingly before the final study was conducted.…”