Cost and budget impact analysis of a school-based vision screening programme in Cambodia and Ghana: Implications for policy and programme scale-up

Engels, Thomas; Trotignon, Guillaume; Agyemang, David; Khan, Imran Akhtar; Puthy, Kann; Roolvink, Liesbeth; Schmidt, Elena

doi:10.1016/j.hpopen.2021.100043

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…This included the high competency level of local health personnel such as ophthalmologists, OCOs, ONs, and OTs; the high burden of childhood eye problems, which demonstrated the demand for services; the high level of receptivity shown by the local community such as schoolteachers, school heads, caretakers and children seeking health services; and the potential of cost-saving by sharing resources between the two programmes through incorporating eye health as an additional component to the existing programme. Such success has been highlighted in Ghana and Cambodia [ 23 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can we scale up a comprehensive school-based eye health programme in Zambia?

Yong

Buglass²,

Mwelwa³

et al. 2022

BMC Health Serv Res

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Background Globally, 19 million children have preventable vision impairment simply because refractive and eye health services are inaccessible to most of them. In Zambia, approximately 50,000 school children need spectacle provision. The School-based Eye Health Programme (SEHP) has been identified worldwide as a proven strategy to address childhood blindness. Given its great benefits, the Zambian government intends to scale up the programme. This scalability assessment aims to identify and evaluate the essential components of an effective SEHP, determine roles, assess existing capacities within user organisations, identify environmental facilitating and inhibiting factors, and estimate the minimum resources necessary for the scaling up and their proposed scale-up strategies. Methods Five elements (innovation, user organisation, resource team, environment, and strategies for horizontal and vertical scaling-up) were assessed guided by the ExpandNet-WHO Nine Steps for Developing a Scaling-Up Strategy. Literature review on proven strategies to reduce childhood blindness and the credibility of SEHP implemented in resource-limited settings, document review on the pilot project, questionnaires, and stakeholders’ interviews were conducted to collect data for this assessment. Subsequently, twenty questions in the Worksheets for Developing a Scaling-up Strategy were used to report the assessment outcome systematically. Results Additional components of SEHP incorporated in Zambia’s model enhanced the innovation’s credibility and relevance. The resource team was relatively competent in the pilot project, and the same team will be employed during the scaling-up. Potential change in political parties, the lack of supply chain, and unstable financial support were identified as inhibiting factors. The objectives of SEHP were aligned with the National Eye Health Strategic Plan 2017–2021, which supports the institutionalisation of the SEHP into the existing School Health and Nutrition Programme. For the pace of expansion, replicating SEHP to another district rather than a province will be more realistic. Conclusion Scaling up a comprehensive SEHP in Zambia is feasible if sufficient funding is available. Additionally, the pace must be adapted to the local context to ensure that every component within the SEHP is intact.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can we scale up a comprehensive school-based eye health programme in Zambia?

Yong

Buglass²,

Mwelwa³

et al. 2022

BMC Health Serv Res

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“…Nowhere is this more apparent than in the pursuit of inclusive and equitable quality education (Goal 4), where trials have shown that providing eyeglasses to school children significantly improves educational outcomes 2–6 . Moreover, programs for the detection and treatment of refractive errors among school children have the potential to be highly cost-effective in all regions of the world 7–12 . Nevertheless, for school eye health programs to be sustainable, it is necessary to integrate them within the broader health care system.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[2][3][4][5][6] Moreover, programs for the detection and treatment of refractive errors among school children have the potential to be highly cost-effective in all regions of the world. [7][8][9][10][11][12] Nevertheless, for school eye health programs to be sustainable, it is necessary to integrate them within the broader health care system. Further, in view of their potential impact on education and other areas, such programs must also be closely linked with ministries of education and other relevant government stakeholders.School Health and Nutrition programs offer an appealing platform through which to deliver eye care services.…”

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confidence: 99%

Recognizing Eye Health as an Integral Part of Children's School Health Throughout the World

Mackenzie

Morgan

Baraas

et al. 2022

Asia-Pacific Journal of Ophthalmology

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T here is global recognition that delivering eye care is essential to achieving Sustainable Development Goals. The United Nations' (UN) recently ratified resolution on Vision for Everyone 1 reaffirms that improved vision and optimized functional ability are essential to ending poverty (Goal 1); attaining healthy lives (Goal 3); ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all (Goal 4); achieving food security and improved nutrition (Goal 2); promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth and productive employment (Goal 8), and reducing inequality within and among countries (Goal 10). The benefits of access to eye care accrue throughout life, and the earlier in life individuals can take advantage of eye care services, the better. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the pursuit of inclusive and equitable quality education (Goal 4), where trials have shown that providing eyeglasses to school children significantly improves educational outcomes. [2][3][4][5][6] Moreover, programs for the detection and treatment of refractive errors among school children have the potential to be highly cost-effective in all regions of the world. [7][8][9][10][11][12] Nevertheless, for school eye health programs to be sustainable, it is necessary to integrate them within the broader health care system. Further, in view of their potential impact on education and other areas, such programs must also be closely linked with ministries of education and other relevant government stakeholders.School Health and Nutrition programs offer an appealing platform through which to deliver eye care services. 13 The last decade has seen unprecedented growth in national school health and nutrition programs. An analysis by the United Nations World Food Program 14 in January 2020 found that more school children benefited from school health and nutrition programs than at any time in history. Around half the world's primary school children, some 400 million, received meals at school every day, and more than 95% of these programs used the school platform to deliver a range of other health services, often including eye health. However, by mid-2020, this decade of growth was brought to a shuddering halt when the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of schools worldwide and excluded 1.5 billion children from education. 15 This has caused the greatest education crisis in world history, and at the same time, suddenly deprived school children of basic health and nutrition services. Strenuous national efforts to cope and mitigate the effect of the pandemic soon showed that, whether countries were resource-rich or resource-poor, there was no meaningful substitute for the school system to reach young people. Today, a Coalition of nations 16 has emerged, currently including more than 60 countries and 42 international agencies, with the specific resolve to build-back-better school-based programs. Specifically, the goals are to restore school health and nutrition services to 2020 levels by 2023 and reach another 73 million children identified as mo...

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