Abstract
Purpose :
The cost of eyeglasses is variably covered by medical insurance and thus is a significant barrier for patients in lower socioeconomic classes. This study seeks to evaluate the efficacy of Recycle Vision (RV) at Los Angeles County + University of Southern California (LAC+USC) Medical Center Eye Clinic, a monthly clinic run by volunteer medical students that provides free donated eyeglasses, through patient quality surveys of RV clinic attendees.
Methods :
A convenience sample of 30 patients were surveyed upon initial visit between August 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 on their perceived level of ease in completing daily tasks prior to visiting RV clinic, level of satisfaction with previous glasses, and reasons why they previously did not seek eyeglasses. Patients’ prescriptions were matched with available eyeglasses based on spherical equivalent and axis of astigmatism using Winglasses software algorithm; patients selected their glasses from these presented options based on subjective improvement of visual acuity. They then completed a phone follow-up survey 1 month after initial visit to gauge satisfaction with the services of RV and perceived changes in ease of completing daily tasks after visiting RV clinic.
Results :
Of the 30 study participants, 90% received eyeglasses from RV, with average reported improvement in ease of daily activities of 3.96 (SD 1.13) on a scale of 1 to 5. 67% responded that if RV clinic did not exist, they would not have obtained glasses elsewhere. Cost was the most commonly cited barrier (70%); other barriers cited by patients are listed in Figure 1. On follow-up survey, on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being greatest), the average likelihood of patients referring a friend/family member to RV was 4.07 (SD 1.14).
Conclusions :
The majority of patients who visited RV received free eyeglasses and had subsequent improvement in their quality of life. This study demonstrates that programs offering free eyeglasses are effective at correcting refractive error and can offer a practical public health solution to improving functional visual acuity for underserved populations.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.