Optometric education in India: addressing the needs of three billion eyes.

Optometry, a nearly century-old profession in India, plays an important role in determining the eye health status in the country. Professional regulation is in sight for optometry through the establishment of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act (NCAHP), 2021. The review offers critical insights on the present status of Indian optometric education - its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats - and identifies several areas of improvement for continued growth.

Cost Analysis of a Comprehensive School Eye Screening Model from India.

Purpose: School eye screening is a crucial strategy in the elimination of childhood blindness because of its ability to reach out to children who are otherwise inaccessible to eye care needs. Comprehensive screening programs are recommended and are beneficial, but the economic aspects of such models remain to be understood. This study aimed to analyse the cost of a comprehensive school eye screening model while utilizing optometrists and optometry students.

Optometric education in the post-COVID-19 era: A time of forced change!

There is a massive disruption of the global economy and education due to the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This has posed significant challenges and threats to the academic community, especially in health care where the learning and assessment are patient centered. Though blended learning had its emphasis in the pre-COVID-19 era, innovations are required to meet up to the increased demands on learning and assessment.

Dalton's pseudo-isochromatic plates and congenital colour vision deficiency.

Background: Diagnosing colour vision deficiency is vital, owing to its impact on the choice of career and activities of daily living. Conventional screening methods require frequent replacement due to soiling of the materials, and hence are expensive and not feasible for large-scale community screening. This study aims to construct and validate a new screening tool, Dalton's pseudo-isochromatic plates (PIP), addressing the disadvantages of the conventional methods.

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

Purpose: Visual impairment is a major health concern all over the world. Globally, it has been studied that utilization of low vision care (LVC) services varies from 3% to 15%. This study describes barriers to access the LVC services and suggest enablers to improve the uptake of services in a tertiary eye care hospital.

Environmental factors in school classrooms: How they influence visual task demand on children.

Background: The key visual factors in a classroom environment include the legibility, angle subtended at the eye, illumination, contrast, and colour of the visual task. The study evaluated the visual environmental factors in the school classrooms.

Materials And Methods: The distance Visual Acuity (VA) demand was evaluated based on the size of visual task i.

Spectacle compliance among adolescents in Southern India: Perspectives of service providers.

Purpose: Compliance to spectacle wear is vital to elimination of avoidable blindness among schoolchildren. This study aims to understand the barriers to compliance and strategies to overcome the barriers from the perspectives of the service providers of the school vision-screening model.

Methods: A snapshot qualitative study using focus group discussions (FGDs) was conducted among the service providers including eye care professionals (ECPs) and social workers that are part of the school screening program.

Variant myopia: A new presentation?

Purpose: Variant myopia (VM) presents as a discrepancy of >1 diopter (D) between subjective and objective refraction, without the presence of any accommodative dysfunction. The purpose of this study is to create a clinical profile of VM.

Methods: Fourteen eyes of 12 VM patients who had a discrepancy of >1D between retinoscopy and subjective acceptance under both cycloplegic and noncycloplegic conditions were included in the study.

Effectiveness of interventions in improving compliance to spectacle wear and referral in school vision screening.

Background: Success of a school vision screening program depends on compliance with the advice that is offered to the children. This study evaluates the effect of an intervention package on compliance to spectacle wear and referral in a school vision screening program.

Methods: Among 8,442 children aged 13-17 years in 11 government schools in and around Chennai, India, 114 (2.

Construction and validation of logMAR visual acuity charts in seven Indian languages.

Purpose: The evaluation of visual impairment requires the measurement of visual acuity with a validated and standard logMAR visual acuity chart. We aimed to construct and validate new logMAR visual acuity chart in Indian languages (Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Urdu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Assamese).

Methods: The commonly used font in each language was chosen as the reference and designed to fit the 5 × 5 grid (Adobe Photoshop).

Are children with low vision adapted to the visual environment in classrooms of mainstream schools?

Purpose: The study aimed to evaluate the classroom environment of children with low vision and provide recommendations to reduce visual stress, with focus on mainstream schooling.

Methods: The medical records of 110 children (5-17 years) seen in low vision clinic during 1 year period (2015) at a tertiary care center in south India were extracted. The visual function levels of children were compared to the details of their classroom environment.

The minimum test battery to screen for binocular vision anomalies: report 3 of the BAND study.

Purpose: This study aims to report the minimum test battery needed to screen non-strabismic binocular vision anomalies (NSBVAs) in a community set-up. When large numbers are to be screened we aim to identify the most useful test battery when there is no opportunity for a more comprehensive and time-consuming clinical examination.

Methods: The prevalence estimates and normative data for binocular vision parameters were estimated from the Binocular Vision Anomalies and Normative Data (BAND) study, following which cut-off estimates and receiver operating characteristic curves to identify the minimum test battery have been plotted.

Reasons for spectacle reassessment in a tertiary eye care centre over a period of six years.

Background: To determine the spectacle reassessment rates of dissatisfied patients returning to the optical services department of a tertiary eye centre in India over a period of six years.

Methods: A total of 169,567 spectacles were dispensed from the optical services department between January 2010 and December 2015. The spectacle reassessment forms of dissatisfied patients who returned to the optical services department with their spectacles were analysed.

Efficacy of vision therapy in children with learning disability and associated binocular vision anomalies.

Purpose: To report the frequency of binocular vision (BV) anomalies in children with specific learning disorders (SLD) and to assess the efficacy of vision therapy (VT) in children with a non-strabismic binocular vision anomaly (NSBVA).

Methods: The study was carried out at a centre for learning disability (LD). Comprehensive eye examination and binocular vision assessment was carried out for 94 children (mean (SD) age: 15 (2.

Spectacle Compliance among Adolescents: A Qualitative Study from Southern India.

Purpose: To understand the perceptions of adolescents and their parents about spectacle compliance of adolescents in Southern India.

Methods: Using a qualitative snapshot design, three focus group discussions were conducted each with parents and adolescents studying in schools located in and around Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Purposive sampling technique was used in the selection of participants.

Do school classrooms meet the visual requirements of children and recommended vision standards?

Background: Visual demands of school children tend to vary with diverse classroom environments. The study aimed to evaluate the distance and near Visual Acuity (VA) demand in Indian school classrooms and their comparison with the recommended vision standards.

Materials And Methods: The distance and near VA demands were assessed in 33 classrooms (grades 4 to 12) of eight schools.

Prevalence of non-strabismic anomalies of binocular vision in Tamil Nadu: report 2 of BAND study.

Background: Population-based studies on the prevalence of non-strabismic anomalies of binocular vision in ethnic Indians are more than two decades old. Based on indigenous normative data, the BAND (Binocular Vision Anomalies and Normative Data) study aims to report the prevalence of non-strabismic anomalies of binocular vision among school children in rural and urban Tamil Nadu.

Methods: This population-based, cross-sectional study was designed to estimate the prevalence of non-strabismic anomalies of binocular vision in the rural and urban population of Tamil Nadu.

Binocular vision anomalies and normative data (BAND) in Tamil Nadu: report 1.

Background: This population-based, cross-sectional study was designed to determine normative data for binocular vision and accommodative testing in rural and urban populations of Tamil Nadu.

Methods: A sample of 936 was determined, based on a previous pilot study. The epidemiological field work included a comprehensive eye examination and a binocular vision and accommodative assessment carried out in a total of four public schools, two each in the rural and urban arms of Chennai.

Refractive error and vision-related quality of life in South Indian children.

Purpose: To understand the vision-related quality of life (QoL) of schoolchildren with uncorrected refractive error (URE).

Methods: A snapshot qualitative research design and homogeneous sampling strategy was adopted. Thirty-one, 27, and 22 eye care practitioners, children, and teachers participated in four, three, and two focus group discussions, respectively.

Acute adult onset comitant esotropia associated with accommodative spasm.

Purpose: Acute onset comitant esotropia associated with spasm of accommodation in children and adults is a rare clinical condition. When occurring with pupillary miosis and restricted ocular motility, it is referred to as "spasm of near reflex" (SNR) and may require neurological investigation. The natural history of SNR depends on its etiology.

Parents' awareness and perception of children's eye diseases in Chennai, India.

Purpose: To report parents' awareness and perception of eye diseases in their children.

Methods: Thirty-five parents and 16 eye care practitioners either participated in in-depth interviews or focus group discussions. Data on parents' awareness and perception were collected using interview guides with unstructured questions.

Factors affecting eye care-seeking behavior of parents for their children.

Purpose: Most of the causes of childhood blindness are either treatable or preventable. Eye care-seeking behavior (ESB) of parents for their children plays a pivotal role in reducing this problem. This study was done because there was a sparsity of literature in this context and with a view to help eye care professionals plan better programs and to identify factors facilitating and/or hindering ESB of parents for their school-going children in an urban area.

Impact of low vision care on reading performance in children with multiple disabilities and visual impairment.

Background: Lack of evidence in literature to show low vision care enhances the reading performance in children with Multiple Disabilities and Visual Impairment (MDVI).

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of Low Vision Care intervention on the reading performance of children with MDVI.

Materials And Methods: Three subjects who were diagnosed to have cerebral palsy and visual impairment, studying in a special school were recruited for the study.

Follow-up of primary angle closure suspects after laser peripheral iridotomy using ultrasound biomicroscopy and A-scan biometry for a period of 2 years.

Aim: To determine the morphologic changes in the anterior segment of primary angle closure suspects (PACS) who underwent laser peripheral iridotomy (LPI) for a period of 2 years.

Methods: PACS (n=82 eyes) of Asian Indian origin who attended the Glaucoma clinic of tertiary eye hospital underwent A-scan biometry and ultrasound biomicroscopy. Anterior chamber depth, anterior chamber angle (ACA), axial length, lens thickness, relative lens position, central corneal thickness, angle opening distance 500, trabecular-ciliary process distance, iris-ciliary process distance, and iris thickness were measured before LPI and after LPI at 1 week, 6 months, 1 year, 1.