Screening for Refractive Error and Fitting with Spectacles in Rural and Urban India: Cost-Effectiveness
AUTHOR:
K.D. Frick, L. Riva-Clement and M.B. Shankar
SPONSOR/INSTITUTION:
YEAR PUBLISHED:
2009
PUBLICATION:
Ophthalmic Epidemiology
KEY HIGHLIGHTS:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of screening for refractive error and fitting with glasses in India.
A decision tree was used to measure the cost-effectiveness of school-based screening (SBS) and primary eye care (PEC) settings in urban and rural India.
Urban SBS was highly cost-effective when compared with no screening.
Rural SBS was moderately cost-effective for ages 5-15 and highly cost-effective for ages 7-15.
The cost-effectiveness between SBS and PEC depends on the choice of targeted age group and area of the intervention.