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Overcoming Gender Inequity in Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment in Africa

BACKGROUND: Globally, and in Africa, after adjusting for age, women are about 1.4 times more likely to be blind than men. While women generally live longer than men, the lack of accessibility to and use of services is likely the most important reason for excess blindness in women in Africa. AIM: We...

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Autores principales: Mganga, Herrieth, Lewallen, Susan, Courtright, Paul
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Medknow Publications 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3119299/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21731318
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0974-9233.80695
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author Mganga, Herrieth
Lewallen, Susan
Courtright, Paul
author_facet Mganga, Herrieth
Lewallen, Susan
Courtright, Paul
author_sort Mganga, Herrieth
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Globally, and in Africa, after adjusting for age, women are about 1.4 times more likely to be blind than men. While women generally live longer than men, the lack of accessibility to and use of services is likely the most important reason for excess blindness in women in Africa. AIM: We sought to review the literature on vision loss in Africa and summarize the findings related to gender equity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Information from across sub-Saharan Africa was collected on the evidence of gender inequity and reasons for this inequity. Finally, the results were used to generate suggestions on how gender equity could be improved. RESULTS: In all published surveys (except one), cataract surgical coverage among women was lower than cataract surgical coverage among men. Although data available are limited, similar findings appeared in the use of services for other disease conditions, notably, childhood cataract and glaucoma. Evidence suggests that a variety of approaches are needed to improve the use of eye care services. Three main strategies are needed to address gender inequity in vision loss in Africa. First, it is important to address transport needs. Second, counseling of patients and family members is required. Finally, programs need to put in place pricing systems that make the services affordable the population. CONCLUSIONS: VISION 2020 can be achieved in Africa, but investment is needed in a variety of strategies that will ensure that eye care services are affordable, accessible, and acceptable to women and girls.
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spelling pubmed-31192992011-06-30 Overcoming Gender Inequity in Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment in Africa Mganga, Herrieth Lewallen, Susan Courtright, Paul Middle East Afr J Ophthalmol Public Health Update BACKGROUND: Globally, and in Africa, after adjusting for age, women are about 1.4 times more likely to be blind than men. While women generally live longer than men, the lack of accessibility to and use of services is likely the most important reason for excess blindness in women in Africa. AIM: We sought to review the literature on vision loss in Africa and summarize the findings related to gender equity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Information from across sub-Saharan Africa was collected on the evidence of gender inequity and reasons for this inequity. Finally, the results were used to generate suggestions on how gender equity could be improved. RESULTS: In all published surveys (except one), cataract surgical coverage among women was lower than cataract surgical coverage among men. Although data available are limited, similar findings appeared in the use of services for other disease conditions, notably, childhood cataract and glaucoma. Evidence suggests that a variety of approaches are needed to improve the use of eye care services. Three main strategies are needed to address gender inequity in vision loss in Africa. First, it is important to address transport needs. Second, counseling of patients and family members is required. Finally, programs need to put in place pricing systems that make the services affordable the population. CONCLUSIONS: VISION 2020 can be achieved in Africa, but investment is needed in a variety of strategies that will ensure that eye care services are affordable, accessible, and acceptable to women and girls. Medknow Publications 2011 /pmc/articles/PMC3119299/ /pubmed/21731318 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0974-9233.80695 Text en © Middle East African Journal of Ophthalmology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Public Health Update
Mganga, Herrieth
Lewallen, Susan
Courtright, Paul
Overcoming Gender Inequity in Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment in Africa
title Overcoming Gender Inequity in Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment in Africa
title_full Overcoming Gender Inequity in Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment in Africa
title_fullStr Overcoming Gender Inequity in Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment in Africa
title_full_unstemmed Overcoming Gender Inequity in Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment in Africa
title_short Overcoming Gender Inequity in Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment in Africa
title_sort overcoming gender inequity in prevention of blindness and visual impairment in africa
topic Public Health Update
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3119299/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21731318
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0974-9233.80695
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