TY - JOUR T1 - Prevalence of blindness and distance vision impairment in the Gambia across three decades of eye health programming JF - British Journal of Ophthalmology JO - Br J Ophthalmol SP - 876 LP - 882 DO - 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2021-320008 VL - 107 IS - 6 AU - Abba Hydara AU - Islay Mactaggart AU - Suzannah J Bell AU - John A Okoh AU - Segun I Olaniyan AU - Mildred Aleser AU - Hannaa Bobat AU - Andy Cassels-Brown AU - Ben Kirkpatrick AU - Min J Kim AU - Ian McCormick AU - Hannah Faal AU - Matthew J Burton Y1 - 2023/06/01 UR - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/107/6/876.abstract N2 - Background/aims The 1986 Gambia National Eye Health Survey provided baseline data for a National Eye Health Programme. A second survey in 1996 evaluated changes in population eye health a decade later. We completed a third survey in 2019, to determine the current state of population eye health, considering service developments and demographic change.Methods We estimated prevalence and causes of vision impairment (VI) in a nationally representative population-based sample of adults 35 years and older. We used multistage cluster random sampling to sample 10 800 adults 35 and above in 360 clusters of 30. We measured monocular distance visual acuity (uncorrected and with available correction) using Peek Acuity. Participants with either eye uncorrected or presenting (with available correction) acuity <6/12 were retested with pinhole and refraction, and dilated exams were completed on all eyes by ophthalmologists using a direct ophthalmoscope, slit lamp and 90 D lens.Results We examined 9188 participants (response rate 83%). The 2013 census age–sex adjusted prevalence of blindness (presenting acuity<3/60 in better seeing eye) was 1.2% (95% CI 0.9 to 1.4) and of moderate or severe VI (MSVI,<6/18 to ≥3/60) was 8.9% (95% CI 9.1 to 9.7). Prevalence of all distance VI (<6/12) was 13.4% (12.4–14.4). Compared with 1996, the relative risk of blindness decreased (risk ratio 0.7, 95% CI 0.5 to 1.0) and MSVI increased (risk ratio 1.5, 95% CI 1.2 to 0.17).Conclusion Significant progress has been made to reduce blindness and increase access to eye health across the Gambia, with further work is needed to decrease the risk of MSVI.Data are available upon reasonable request. Data analyses are ongoing. The anonymised dataset can be made available on reasonable request from the study team. ER -