Impact of COVID-19 and recovery of routine diabetic retinopathy digital screening across different regions in England: an analysis of publicly available data.

Objective: This study aims to examine the reduction and subsequent recovery of routine digital screening (RDS) uptake in England from 2018 to 2022, exploring national, regional and individual Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (DESP) levels. The COVID-19 lockdown in most areas of England was from 26 March 2020 to 23 June 2020 (first national lockdown), 5 November 2020 to 2 December 2020 (second national lockdown) and 6 January 2021 to 8 March 2021 (third national lockdown).

Design: Retrospective data analysis.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on retinopathy of prematurity services in low resource settings.

Background And Objectives: Retinopathy of prematurity is an increasingly important cause of blindness in children in low- and middle-income countries. Timely screening and treatment greatly reduce blindness. This study assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ROP services in low- and middle-income countries.

Improved screening of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP): development of a target product profile (TPP) for resource-limited settings.

Background: As more preterm infants survive, complications of preterm birth, including retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), become more prevalent. ROP rates and blindness from ROP are higher in low-income and middle-income countries, where exposure to risk factors can be higher and where detection and treatment of ROP are under-resourced or non-existent. Access to low-cost imaging devices would improve remote screening capabilities for ROP.

Cataract services for all: Strategies for equitable access from a global modified Delphi process.

Vision loss from cataract is unequally distributed, and there is very little evidence on how to overcome this inequity. This project aimed to engage multiple stakeholder groups to identify and prioritise (1) delivery strategies that improve access to cataract services for under-served groups and (2) population groups to target with these strategies across world regions. We recruited panellists knowledgeable about cataract services from eight world regions to complete a two-round online modified Delphi process.

Technical capacities needed to implement the WHO's primary eye care package for Africa: results of a Delphi process.

Objective: The aim of the study was to establish the technical capacities needed to deliver the WHO African Region's primary eye care package in primary healthcare facilities.

Design: A two-round Delphi exercise was used to obtain expert consensus on the technical complexity of each component of the package and the technical capacities needed to deliver them using Gericke's framework of technical feasibility. The panel comprised nine eyecare experts in primary eyecare in sub-Saharan Africa.

Fifteen-year incidence rate and risk factors of pterygium in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Purpose: To report 15-year incidence rate and associated risk factors of pterygium among people aged 30 years and above at baseline in the rural clusters of longitudinal Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study (APEDS III).

Methods: The baseline APEDS I included 7771 participants of which 6447 (83%) were traced and 5395 (83.7%) were re-examined in APEDS III.

Presentation, surgery and 1-year outcomes of childhood cataract surgery in Tanzania.

Background: Recent reports have suggested a significant change in the causes of blindness in children in low-income countries cataract becoming the leading cause. We aimed to investigate the presentations and surgical outcomes in children with cataract operated at different ages in Tanzania.

Methods: We conducted a prospective study of 228 children aged ≤192 months at three tertiary centres, 177 with bilateral cataracts and prospectively followed them for 1-year postsurgery.

Accuracy of the smartphone-based nonmydriatic retinal camera in the detection of sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy.

Purpose: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of smartphone-based nonmydriatic (NM) retinal camera in the detection of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and sight-threatening DR (STDR) in a tertiary eye care facility.

Methods: Patients with diabetes underwent retinal photography with a smartphone-based NM fundus camera before mydriasis and standard 7-field fundus photography with a desktop mydriatic fundus camera after mydriasis. DR was graded using the international clinical classification of diabetic retinopathy system by two retinal expert ophthalmologists masked to each other and to the patient's identity.

Cataract Services are Leaving Widows Behind: Examples from National Cross-Sectional Surveys in Nigeria and Sri Lanka.

The Sustainable Development Goals aim to leave no one behind. We explored the hypothesis that women without a living spouse-including those who are widowed, divorced, separated, and never married-are a vulnerable group being left behind by cataract services. Using national cross-sectional blindness surveys from Nigeria (2005-2007; = 13,591) and Sri Lanka (2012-2014; = 5779) we categorized women and men by marital status (married/not-married) and place of residence (urban/rural) concurrently.

Evidence for national universal eye health plans.

Many low- and middle-income countries use national eye-care plans to guide efforts to strengthen eye-care services. The World Health Organization recognizes that evidence is essential to inform these plans. We assessed how evidence was incorporated in a sample of 28 national eye-care plans generated since the was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2013.

Glaucoma-associated long-term mortality in a rural cohort from India: the Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study.

Aim: To evaluate glaucoma-associated mortality in a rural cohort in India.

Methods: The study cohort comprised individuals aged 40 years and above who took part in the Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study (APEDS1) during 1996-2000. All participants underwent detailed comprehensive eye examination.

Assessment of Response Bias Is Neglected in Cross-Sectional Blindness Prevalence Surveys: A Review of Recent Surveys in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Purpose: Findings from cross-sectional blindness prevalence surveys are at risk of several biases that cause the study estimate to differ from the 'true' population prevalence. For example, response bias occurs when people who participate ('responders') differ from those who do not ('non-responders') in ways that affect prevalence estimates. This study aimed to assess the extent to which response bias is considered and occurs in blindness prevalence surveys in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Reducing inequity of cataract blindness and vision impairment is a global priority, but where is the evidence?

Throughout the world, people who are socially or economically disadvantaged disproportionately experience blindness and vision impairment caused by cataract. Reducing vision loss from cataract and its unequal distribution must be a priority if the WHO's aim of 'universal eye health' is to be realised. To help achieve this, decision-makers and service planners need evidence on which strategies improve access to cataract services among disadvantaged populations, and under what circumstances.

Outcome of paediatric cataract surgery in Northwest Ethiopia: a retrospective case series.

Aim: To assess visual acuity outcomes, and factors associated with the outcome, of paediatric cataract surgery at the Child Eye Health Tertiary Facility, Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia.

Methods: The medical records of children aged below 16 years who underwent cataract surgery between September 2010 and August 2014 were reviewed for preoperative, surgical and postoperative data.

Results: One hundred and seventy-six eyes of 142 children (mean age 7.

Reducing Blindness from Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) in Argentina Through Collaboration, Advocacy and Policy Implementation.

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a largely avoidable cause of blindness in children worldwide, requiring high-quality neonatal care, early detection and treatment. In middle-income countries throughout Latin America, Eastern Europe and South Asia, there has been a rise in ROP blindness due to a combination of increased survival of preterm infants, resource-scarce medical environments and lack of policies, training and human resources. However, Argentina is an example of country where rates of ROP blindness have declined and ROP programmes have been successfully and effectively embedded within the health and legal system.

Advanced glaucoma at presentation is associated with poor follow-up among glaucoma patients attending a tertiary eye facility in Southern Nigeria.

Purpose: Globally, particularly in Africa, poor compliance with medication is a major problem in glaucoma management but little is known about follow-up rates among African glaucoma patients. The aim of this study was to determine rates of follow-up among glaucoma patients attending a tertiary hospital in southern Nigeria and investigate predictors of poor follow-up.

Methods: Data were extracted from medical records of new glaucoma patients who attended the hospital between June 2011 and May 2013.

Willingness to pay for cataract surgery is much lower than actual costs in Zamfara state, northern Nigeria.

Purpose: Direct medical and non-medical costs incurred by those undergoing subsidised cataract surgery at Gusau eye clinic, Zamfara state, were recently determined. The aim of this study was to assess the willingness to pay for cataract surgery among adults with severe visual impairment or blindness from cataract in rural Zamfara and to compare this to actual costs.

Methods: In three rural villages served by Gusau eye clinic, key informants helped identify 80 adults with bilateral severe visual impairment or blindness (<6/60), with cataract being the cause in at least one eye.

Avoidable Waste in Ophthalmic Epidemiology: A Review of Blindness Prevalence Surveys in Low and Middle Income Countries 2000-2014.

Purpose: Sources of avoidable waste in ophthalmic epidemiology include duplication of effort, and survey reports remaining unpublished, gaining publication after a long delay, or being incomplete or of poor quality. The aim of this review was to assess these sources of avoidable waste by examining blindness prevalence surveys undertaken in low and middle income countries (LMICs) between 2000 and 2014.

Methods: On December 1, 2016 we searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science databases for cross-sectional blindness prevalence surveys undertaken in LMICs between 2000 and 2014.

A worldwide survey of retinopathy of prematurity screening.

Background: To ascertain which countries in the world have retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening programmes and guidelines and how these were developed.

Methods: An email database was created and requests were sent to ophthalmologists in 141 nations to complete an online survey on ROP screening in their country.

Results: Representatives from 92/141 (65%) countries responded.