Abstract
Purpose::
to investigate the prevalence of ophthalmic diseases and the role of a mobile unit for screening and treatment of eye diseases in individuals enrolled in a Community Ocular Health Program in Brazil.
Methods::
the study was a population-based cross-sectional study, with a randomized stratified sample of households in 11 cities of an urban Brazilian population in the West region of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The sample consisted of 11,121 individuals (age range: 1-70+ years) who underwent complete ophthalmic examination (visual acuity (VA), refraction, anterior segment biomicroscopy, fundoscopy, and tonometry). Subjects received treatment at the time of the examination when possible or were referred to a reference hospital for proper care.
Results::
of all individuals examined, 43.2% improved their VA achieving normal levels with eyeglasses, 1.4% presented low vision, 2.3% were blind, and 39.9% had emmetropia. Approximately 8.4% of the individuals needed to be referred to the University Hospital for further treatment. The main diseases presented by the cases that needed to be referred were: pterigyum and eyelid affections (38.4%), cataract (27.7%) and glaucoma (19.5%).
Conclusions::
the high rates of ophthalmic problems solved using the mobile unit showed the importance of this approach in providing primary care to general population; only few individuals needed to be referred to the University Hospital for more complex treatment.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: health care delivery/economics/manpower • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: treatment/prevention assessment/controlled clinical trials • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence