Integrated Primary Eye Care Interventions in Ethiopia

Date of Start
September 2021

Date of Completion
August 2026

Funder
Wellcome Trust UK

Aim
Develop a package of effective and sustainable Primary Eye Care (PEC) interventions for integrated service delivery within Primary Health Care (PHC) in low-income settings.

Background
Poor vision is a major public health problem worldwide. WHO estimates 2.2 billion people have some degree of vision impairment: at least one billion of these people have not had their need addressed. WHO Regional Office for Africa developed an algorithm-based PEC training manual for PHC personnel. However, there is very little data from low-income settings on how to sustainably deliver effective integrated PEC within PHC. This project will be executed in a sequence of inter-related studies across four phases. Phase 1 is focused on community eye health needs and perception assessment. After looking at the data from Phase 1, the health system capacity assessment for PEC integration will be conducted in Phase 2. The data generated in Phases 1&2 will be then used to inform the intervention development in Phase 3. The data from Phase 1-3 will finally be used to inform the PEC intervention packages testing.

Progress
Phases 1 and 2 are under progress