Population-Based Eye Disease Studies

Vision loss is a global challenge affecting over 253 million people worldwide [1]. Effective planning of healthcare systems are an essential step for building healthy communities. These factors apply to eye health as well. Changing demographics associated with decreasing birth rates and rapidly increasing life expectancy in developing countries means that healthcare systems should be prepared to adapt to rising and continually changing needs. Healthcare planning depends on reliable, measurable, and repeatable information to assess the impact of programs. Classical large-scale epidemiological survey methods, which can provide baseline data on prevalence and risk factors, are seen as a luxury that not many economically fragile developing countries can afford, given the limited resources of both, expertise of personnel and required finances. There is a real need for an evidence base that can emerge from survey methods undertaken with sufficient scientific rigor to make informed policy and programmatic decisions. Rapid assessment methods are indispensable tools in situations where data are needed quickly, and where time or cost-related factors prohibit the use of classical epidemiological surveys [2]. While these are not a substitute for conventional epidemiological study methods, rapid assessment methods have a wide range of public health applications for analysis and monitoring interventions.