Building consensus for the development of child eye care services in South Darfur State of Sudan using the Delphi technique.

Saif H Alrasheed,Kovin S Naidoo,Kamal H Binnawi,Peter C Clarke-Farr

doi:10.4102/phcfm.v10i1.1767

Abstract

BackgroundGlobal estimates suggest there are almost 19 million visually impaired children worldwide, most of whom reside in poor countries, with the major cause being treatable.AimTo determine the barriers to accessing childhood eye care services and to develop an eye care plan for children in South Darfur State, Sudan.SettingThe study took place in South Darfur State, Sudan.MethodsThe classical Delphi technique was used to build consensus on a list of statements, which were generated based on the themes established by the experts, as well as on an extensive literature review.ResultsResponse rates ranged from 90% in the first round (n = 18), 100% in the second round (n = 18) to 89% in the third and final round (n = 16). The total number of statements recommended by the Delphi panellists for development of the paediatric eye care plan, was 60 based on a consensus level of 80% agreement or more. The expert’s consensus on the following key elements for promotion and improvement of child eye care: The main barriers to accessing child eye care were high poverty rate, unavailability of child eye services and a lack of community awareness. The challenges facing visually impaired children were an absence of paediatric ophthalmologists, low vision and orthoptic services.ConclusionThe main barriers to accessing child eye care services were financial, clinical access and lack of knowledge. There should be greater collaboration between the Ministries of Health, Education and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to work together in addressing these barriers.

Highlights

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that there are around 19 million visually impaired children worldwide, of whom 1.4 million are blind and 17.5 million have poor vision
In spite of visual impairment (VI) among children being less common compared to adults, it has a serious effect on the lifespan of the child.[3]
The prevalence of VI among school-aged children in South Darfur State was 4.4%, where the leading causes of VI was uncorrected refractive error, affecting 57% of the children.[8]. This highlights the lack of eye care services[8] and supports the views of Alrasheed et al.[9] who reported that the level of knowledge and practices about eye care and refractive error was low among the students of South Darfur State in Sudan.[9]

Summary

Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that there are around 19 million visually impaired children worldwide, of whom 1.4 million are blind and 17.5 million have poor vision. Most of those children live in middle- and lower-income countries.[1,2] In spite of visual impairment (VI) among children being less common compared to adults, it has a serious effect on the lifespan of the child.[3] Almost 60% of children who become blind will die within one year, and those who survive have limited opportunity for education and social activities, which could increase poverty. Global estimates suggest there are almost 19 million visually impaired children worldwide, most of whom reside in poor countries, with the major cause being treatable

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