Participant referral rate in the National Eye Health Survey (NEHS)

by Stuart Keel, Pei Ying Lee, Joshua Foreman, Peter van Wijngaarden, Hugh R. Taylor, Mohamed Dirani

Purpose

To present the rates of referral of participants in the National Eye Health Survey (NEHS) for further eye care.

Materials & methods

A national sample of 3098 non-Indigenous Australians aged 50–98 and 1738 Indigenous Australians aged 40–92 years living in 30 randomly selected sites was recruited using a door-to-door approach. Participants completed a general questionnaire and a series of eye tests, including vision and anterior segment assessment, intra-ocular pressure measurement, visual field testing and fundus photography. A predefined protocol was used to guide the referral of participants for follow up eye care. An ophthalmologist was on-call to assist with the triaging of participants.

Results

Of the total sample, 32.1% (994/3098) of non-Indigenous participants and 43.6% (757/1738) of Indigenous participants were referred for further eye care (p Conclusions

Our data has identified several high risk groups that required ophthalmic referral including older Australians, non-Indigenous men, Indigenous Australians with self-reported diabetes and those residing in very remote populations who may benefit from improvements in the provision and/or uptake of eye health services. Future longitudinal research is warranted to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of implementing a referral protocol within a population-based research setting.

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