Unmet Presbyopia Needs and Factors Affecting Them Identified Among Teachers

A high prevalence of school teachers may have unmet presbyopia needs, according to an investigation published in Clinical Optometry. Educational initiatives and access to affordable spectacle lenses may improve their job performance and result in better quality of life outcomes, the report suggests.

Researchers included 448 teachers (mean age, 46.79 years; 54.5% women) in the institution-based, cross-sectional study performed in Ethiopia. Study participants underwent comprehensive eye examinations and participated in face-to-face interviews, during which they provided investigators with sociodemographic and eye care-related data. Using this information, the research team identified factors associated with unmet presbyopia needs.

“School teachers are one of the main building blocks of a progressive society, and their ability to see clearly is essential for their daily activities,” according to the researchers. “Most of their activities require extensive periods of near and intermediate work to prepare teaching materials and read students’ scripts, which rely on the use of near corrections. Due to this, proper and adequate correction is required to maximize their performance and quality of life.”

Presbyopia prevalence was 63.62% among the cohort. However, 76% of study participants reported not having a comprehensive exam within the past year — which was 1 factor explaining unmet presbyopia needs in the study. A total of 35.9% of individuals included in the investigation had refractive errors, but only 23% had corrected refractive errors.

The report detailed factors associated with these unmet presbyopia needs, which included age between 35 and 45 years (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 4.56; 95% CI, 1.74-11.91), female sex (AOR, 3.03; 95% CI, 1.75-5.26), an unawareness of presbyopia (AOR, 2.35; 95% CI, 1.30-4.25), unawareness of refraction site (AOR, 4.21; 95% CI, 2.42-7.33), no eye checkup history (AOR, 2.76; 95% CI, 1.52-5.01), and no family history of spectacle use (AOR, 2.61; 95% CI, 1.46-4.67).

Marital status, education level, income, work experience, distance spectacle use, self-rated vision, refractive error, and presbyopia severity were not associated with uncorrected presbyopia.

“The high prevalence of unmet [presbyopia] needs in developing countries might be attributed to the poor accessibility of affordable and qualitative eye care and spectacle services,” the study authors state.  

Study limitations include potential institutional basis, a cross-sectional design, and possible recall bias.