Integrated Management of Presbyopia in Rural Ethiopia (IMPiRE)

Date of Start
May 2021

Date of Completion
May 2025

Funder
Eyu-Ethiopia, Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) and Esillor Group

Aim
Establish self-reliant near vision impairment management services in rural Ethiopia through (a) integrated distribution of near vision correction spectacles by primary health care cadres, and (b) community contribution to the cost of spectacles.

Background
Presbyopia, an age-related near vision impairment (NVI), is one of the most common causes of visual impairment worldwide with 1.8 billion people affected globally. It significantly reduces quality of life, ability to complete daily activities, quality and productivity at work which will have huge economic implications on the affected person and their families. The IMPiRE project is being implemented in two phases: IMPiRE-I and IMPiRE-II. In IMPiRE-I, the safe and integrated distribution of near vision correction spectacles to people with presbyopia by primary health care cadres as part of the primary health care system in rural Ethiopia is being pilot tested in the rural parts of West Gojam Zone, Ethiopia in collaboration with Amhara Region Health Bureau. In IMPiRE-II, lessons learnt from IMPiRE-I will be used to scale-up the services. This phase also contains research assessing impact and efficiency of different service delivery models.

Progress
Feasibility and acceptability of the project was assessed in 2021.
Between 2021 and 2022, a total of 1209 (M=924, F=285) peoples were screened for presbyopia, among which 980 (81%) were identified to have presbyopia.
Spectacles were distributed for 734 peoples (M=561, F=173) of which 350 (Male=266, female= 84) were distributed in 2022.
A total of ETB 88,750 has been generated from sales of spectacles in a revolving fund system managed by the primary health care facilities.