Yuddha Dhoj Sapkota
Prevalence of blindness and cataract surgery in Gandaki Zone, Nepal
himalaya eye hospital heh established 1993 rendering eye care services gandaki dhaulagiri zones hospital extensive community outreach activities along services outpatients emergencies subspecialties vitreoretinal paediatric low vision operation theatre well equipped match surgical needs including phaco surgery cataract hospital performed 14 000 cataract surgeries 250 000 treatment services period aim study estimate prevalence blindness visual impairment cataract surgical coverage among older adult population three districts gandaki zone 80 hospitals service recipients residepeople aged 45 years older enrolled study using stratified cluster design subjects 25 randomly selected clusters listed 806 recruited door door visits recruited subject visual acuity va clinical examination conducted ophthalmologist survey preceded prepilot pilot studies refine operational method assess quality assurance interobserver variation va measurement also carried five different clustersout 5863 selected subjects 853 examined blindness defined presenting va 660 eyes found 26 95 confidence interval ci 22 39 whereas 168 individuals examined vision 619 one eyes cataract principal cause blindness 605 refractive error dominant cause vision impairment 619 833 cataract surgical coverage 595 among cataract blind associated younger age literacy male sexthe finding suggests positive impact heh programme prevalence blindness cataract surgical services survey area strategies improve access utilisation facilities increase cataract surgical coverage need developed