Community Health Workers for Prevention of Corneal Ulcers in South India : A Cluster-Randomized Trial

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved..

PURPOSE: To determine whether a community health worker (CHW) program increases referrals to local eye care providers and ultimately reduces the incidence of corneal ulcers.

DESIGN: Cluster-randomized trial performed from 2014 to 2017 in rural South India.

METHODS: This was a community-based study that included all inhabitants of 42 rural South Indian communities. CHWs were trained to diagnose corneal abrasions and assist participants in seeking care at a local vision center. Given the nature of the intervention, the trial was not masked. The main outcome measure was incident corneal ulcer, defined as an active infiltrate or evidence of a new opacity, as assessed by means of penlight examination during an annual door-to-door census.

RESULTS: Twenty-one study clusters were randomized to the CHW intervention and 21 to no intervention. Vision centers diagnosed 195 corneal abrasions from the intervention clusters during the 2-year study (rate, 223 per 100,000 person-years; 95% CI, 28-1743) and 62 from the control clusters (rate, 62 per 100,000 person-years; 95% CI, 8-496; incidence rate ratio, 3.57; 95% CI, 2.01-6.35; P < .001). The estimated incidence of corneal ulceration during the study period was 60 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI, 25-141) in the intervention group and 32 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI, 13-80) in the control group (incidence rate ratio, 1.86; 95% CI, 0.5-6.4; P = .32).

CONCLUSIONS: A CHW program resulted in 3.5 times more referrals to local eye care providers for corneal abrasions, but no difference could be detected in the incidence of corneal ulceration. CHW programs provide a mechanism for increasing referrals to eye hospitals.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02284698.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:237

Enthalten in:

American journal of ophthalmology - 237(2022) vom: 01. Mai, Seite 259-266

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Srinivasan, Muthiah [VerfasserIn]
Ravilla, Thulasiraj [VerfasserIn]
Vijayakumar, Valaguru [VerfasserIn]
Yesunesan, Devanesam [VerfasserIn]
Mani, Iswarya [VerfasserIn]
Whitcher, John P [VerfasserIn]
Oldenburg, Catherine E [VerfasserIn]
O'Brien, Kieran S [VerfasserIn]
Lietman, Thomas M [VerfasserIn]
Keenan, Jeremy D [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Journal Article
Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 25.04.2022

Date Revised 19.06.2023

published: Print-Electronic

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02284698

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.ajo.2021.12.010

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM334780128