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The impact of having a free community eye clinic located inside a homeless shelter: a retrospective analysis of patient demographics

Worsening vision is a life-altering process that affects individuals in many aspects of daily life. While worsening vision can be caused by normal physiological processes that occur with age, there can be underlying systemic or ocular diseases that may be the root cause. Routine eye exams can screen...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ahluwalia, Amit, Morcos, David, Koulen, Peter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10629483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37942249
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1284748
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author Ahluwalia, Amit
Morcos, David
Koulen, Peter
author_facet Ahluwalia, Amit
Morcos, David
Koulen, Peter
author_sort Ahluwalia, Amit
collection PubMed
description Worsening vision is a life-altering process that affects individuals in many aspects of daily life. While worsening vision can be caused by normal physiological processes that occur with age, there can be underlying systemic or ocular diseases that may be the root cause. Routine eye exams can screen for disease as well determine the degree of vision correction required to attain acceptable vision. Access to an eye exam ordinarily requires vision insurance and one must consider the added expense of glasses if they are recommended. While this can be a life-improving visit for many, there are several socioeconomic barriers that discourage homeless and low-income individuals from being able to access this service. The lack of resources to access regular eye exams and the resulting inadequate eye care may lead to underdiagnosis of serious ocular pathology. The Kansas City Free Eye Clinic is located inside a homeless shelter and, therefore, provides a convenient location for homeless and low-income individuals to receive comprehensive eye exams as well as prescription glasses at no cost. In this paper, we discuss the unique setup and demographics of this student-run eye clinic and the ways in which it has served the Kansas City population and how its integration into a homeless shelter could serve as a role model for free community eye clinics.
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spelling pubmed-106294832023-11-08 The impact of having a free community eye clinic located inside a homeless shelter: a retrospective analysis of patient demographics Ahluwalia, Amit Morcos, David Koulen, Peter Front Public Health Public Health Worsening vision is a life-altering process that affects individuals in many aspects of daily life. While worsening vision can be caused by normal physiological processes that occur with age, there can be underlying systemic or ocular diseases that may be the root cause. Routine eye exams can screen for disease as well determine the degree of vision correction required to attain acceptable vision. Access to an eye exam ordinarily requires vision insurance and one must consider the added expense of glasses if they are recommended. While this can be a life-improving visit for many, there are several socioeconomic barriers that discourage homeless and low-income individuals from being able to access this service. The lack of resources to access regular eye exams and the resulting inadequate eye care may lead to underdiagnosis of serious ocular pathology. The Kansas City Free Eye Clinic is located inside a homeless shelter and, therefore, provides a convenient location for homeless and low-income individuals to receive comprehensive eye exams as well as prescription glasses at no cost. In this paper, we discuss the unique setup and demographics of this student-run eye clinic and the ways in which it has served the Kansas City population and how its integration into a homeless shelter could serve as a role model for free community eye clinics. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-10-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10629483/ /pubmed/37942249 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1284748 Text en Copyright © 2023 Ahluwalia, Morcos and Koulen. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Ahluwalia, Amit
Morcos, David
Koulen, Peter
The impact of having a free community eye clinic located inside a homeless shelter: a retrospective analysis of patient demographics
title The impact of having a free community eye clinic located inside a homeless shelter: a retrospective analysis of patient demographics
title_full The impact of having a free community eye clinic located inside a homeless shelter: a retrospective analysis of patient demographics
title_fullStr The impact of having a free community eye clinic located inside a homeless shelter: a retrospective analysis of patient demographics
title_full_unstemmed The impact of having a free community eye clinic located inside a homeless shelter: a retrospective analysis of patient demographics
title_short The impact of having a free community eye clinic located inside a homeless shelter: a retrospective analysis of patient demographics
title_sort impact of having a free community eye clinic located inside a homeless shelter: a retrospective analysis of patient demographics
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10629483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37942249
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1284748
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