The Vision Detroit Project: Integrated Screening and Community Eye-Health Education Interventions Improve Eyecare Awareness

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Poor eye-health knowledge and health literacy are pervasive, contributing to worse outcomes. This study aims to examine short- and long-term eye-health knowledge retention following eye-health education interventions in adults.

Methods

Vision Detroit was an outreach vision screening program that integrated a 5-Point Teaching Intervention (5PTI), at a Southwest Community Center (SW-CC) from 2015–2017. The 5PTI consists of eye-health learning points developed to verbally educate patients. During vision screenings, eye-health knowledge tests were administered before and after 5PTI (Test 1 and Test 2, respectively). In 2016, Community Eye-Health Education Interventions (CHEI) were initiated at the SW-CC. During CHEI, bilingual healthcare students taught voluntary SW-CC members the 5PTI learning points, regardless of participant interest to attend future screenings. CHEI sessions occurred on separate dates prior to vision screening events. Test 1 and Test 2 scores were compared for all participants. Test 1 scores were compared for those who underwent CHEI prior to vision screening (CHEI positive) versus those who did not (CHEI negative).

Results

Two-hundred-seventeen adult patients met inclusion criteria, with 75.8% women, 82.6% Hispanic, mean age 50.4 ± 16.2 years, 74.6% had high school or less education, and 49.2% had health insurance. Test 1 to Test 2 scores improved after 5PTI (71.2 ± 26.4% vs. 97.2 ± 9.9%, p < .00001). Forty-eight participants attended CHEI and subsequent vision screening. Test 1 scores were higher among those CHEI positive versus CHEI negative (81.1 ± 2.1% vs. 68.3 ± 3.4%, p = .0027).

Conclusion

Simple eye-health education interventions, delivered during vision screenings and via community-based education, can improve eye-health knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• Eye-health knowledge
• public health education
• ophthalmology
• urban
• underserved
• patient-health education
• eye care
• eye-health education intervention

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Gary Abrams, M.D., Kresge Eye Institute, for comprehensive review of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Statement of submission

This article has not been previously submitted for publication.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09286586.2022.2127785

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the DMC Foundation under Grant # 2014-2939 to A.G. and an unrestricted grant to the Department of Ophthalmology, Visual, and Anatomic Sciences of Wayne State University by Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc (New York)