An Update on The Role of Optometrist in National Programme for Control of Blindness & Visual Impairment (NPCBVI)

Sourajit Kumar Banerjee, Bachelors in Optometry

Master’s in Optometry (Final year student), Sushant University, Haryana, India.

Overview

“India the land of diversity, uniqueness and of great leaders who are acknowledged globally ” continuing its legacy, India became the first country to launch a national program in the year 1976 which is commonly known as NPCB “National Programme for control of blindness”. NPCBVI is enactive as a policymaker, monitor & evaluation of policies, budget providers, guide & supporter. It was a 100% centrally sponsored program initially ⁽¹⁾; partial state funding was allocated in the ratio of (60:40).

The primary goal was to reduce the prevalence of blindness to <0.3% by 2000 revised to 2020 ⁽²⁾ and their national health policy was to reduce blindness to 0.25% by 2025 (revised). ⁽³⁾

Main Objectives

Table-1: Main Objectives of NPCB

Blindness Criteria:

NPCB&VI follows the same criteria as given by World Health Organization (WHO) ⁽⁴⁾

Table-2: Visual Impairment and Blindness Criteria

If the Present Visual Acuity is <6/18 in the better eye with available correction, then it comes under the category of visual impairment.

Estimated prevalence of blindness and visual impairment (Overall population 93,000) ⁽²⁾

Table-3: Prevalence of Blindness and Visual Impairment

From all this data we can say that the current prevalence of blindness 0.36% is close to the target of 0.3% by 2020 are the indication of improved health efficiency.

Roles of an optometrist:

• Early detection, treatment & screening at primary level: Being the first line of contact with the patient, proper screening & early detection can save the patient from severe visual impairment.
• Vision testing and refraction: Uncorrected refractive error is a common cause of avoidable blindness. We can reduce the prevalence by providing proper vision testing and refraction.
• Dispensing spectacles: Dispensing spectacles according to the needs of the patient is very important. Early dispensing of spectacles to children with refractive error can eliminate other abnormalities like amblyopia, suppression, etc.
• Refer & triage individuals needing surgery: Referring individuals needing surgery is very crucial to reduce the backlog. A cataract is the highest cause of avoidable blindness; a timely referral will reduce its prevalence
• Pre & Post-operative follow-up procedure: To achieve a successful operation the Pre & Post-operative care and follow-up is of great importance. If proper care is
• Training of Volunteers and eye care personnel: Training of workers/volunteers and schoolteachers are important so that vision screening can be done to segregate the vision impairment
• Research in Eye Care: Research for understanding the National & global eye care needs and providing cost-effective, available, and easily applicable solutions. The role of an optometrist in research is very important to establish an evidence-based solution and implementation of Eyecare models.

 “Optometrist’s need to take responsibility for prevention, health promotion & education,”

Conclusion

Co-management among Optometrist-Ophthalmologists is and will be the way forward in achieving the goals, objectives, roles in NPCBVI and National Health Policy.

Reference

1. Vemparala, R., & Gupta, P. (2017). National Programme for control of blindness (NPCB) in the 12th five-year plan: an overview. The Official Scientific Journal of Delhi Ophthalmological Society, 27(4), 290-292.
2. National Blindness & Visual Impairment survey India 2015-2019 – A SUMMARY REPORT.
3. National Health Policy 2017.
4. Vashist, P., Senjam, S. S., Gupta, V., Gupta, N., & Kumar, A. (2017). Definition of blindness under National Programme for Control of Blindness: Do we need to revise it? Indian journal of ophthalmology, 65(2), 92.

“The blog is written solely for education purpose, and it does not have any financial support and conflict of interest.”