Impact of Vision Centres on achieving universal eye health coverage: prevalence, coverage and utilisation of eye care services in Southern India

Background The Vision Centre (VC) model evolved to meet primary eye care needs in rural and underprivileged communities, overcoming workforce and resource challenges. Despite over two decades of operation, its impact is not well-documented. We evaluated its effectiveness by comparing prevalence of visual impairment (VI), eyecare utilisation and service coverage among residents within and beyond a 5 km radius of VCs in Theni district, India. Methods We conducted a population-based cross-sectional study in Theni district, Tamil Nadu, from 2016 to 2018. Using cluster random sampling, we examined 7127 subjects aged ≥40 years. We categorised them into Group 1 (living within 5 km of VC) and Group 2 (living beyond 5 km). We compared the prevalence of VI, utilisation, cataract surgical coverage (CSC), effective cataract surgical coverage (eCSC), refractive error coverage (REC) and effective refractive error coverage (eREC) between the groups. Results Group 1 (n=3128) had lower age-sex-adjusted prevalence of VI (18.1% vs 25.2%) and higher eye care utilisation (66.7% vs 52.3%) compared with Group 2 (n=3999). Additionally, Group 1 demonstrated better CSC (63.9% vs 55.0%) and eCSC (44.8% vs 32.6%) than Group 2. REC for distance vision was 49.7% in Group 1 and 26.6% in Group 2, while eREC was 47.9% and 24.5%, respectively. Near vision coverage was 22.1% in Group 1 and 12.5% in Group 2. Conclusion VCs greatly enhance eye care in rural and underserved areas. Residents near VCs had lower prevalence of VI, higher utilisation and better coverage compared with those farther away, demonstrating the model’s effectiveness in improving eye care access and affordability. Data are available upon reasonable request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.