Module 4: The Importance of Eye Health Education
Knowledge as a Precondition
Eye health is often seen as an “extra” type of care relative to more standard physical checkups. In fact, a national survey on eye care and correction reported that Americans see doctors for physical checkups and dentists for dental checkups far more frequently than they visit eye doctors for eye exams.(1) However, thinking about eye care in this way ignores the vital importance that sight has in our everyday lives. It also leads many to be uninformed or misinformed about eye health issues, so much so that they do not, in many cases, seek treatment for conditions that can be easily rectified through medical intervention. Jonathan Javitt’s research at Georgetown University suggests that patients' lack of knowledge about the value of regular eye care plays a significant role in determining whether or not they seek regular eye care. Lower levels of education are also associated with limited knowledge about common eye problems such as glaucoma and complications arising from diabetes. Those with limited knowledge about these conditions were found to be far less likely to receive an examination for the disease than those with more knowledge.(2)
If community members are not aware that their condition can be treated, or if they are unaware that they have an eye condition that is not, as many believe, simply a natural product of the aging proces, then they will not seek treatment. A lack of knowledge could mean the difference between being able to see and spending the rest of their lives in near or complete blindness. The National Institutes of Health sponsors the National Eye Health Education Program with the goal of educating professionals and the public about eye conditions and what can be done to treat them.(3) Eye health education is absolutely essential to helping people seek diagnosis and treatment for eye conditions. Education programs have proven to be effective in a variety of circumstances, including one study by Basch and colleagues that showed a doubling of the rate at which subjects sought eye care for diabetes mellitus after an educational intervention.(4)
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Footnotes
(1) Javitt, J.C. “Preventing Blindness in Americans: The Need for Eyehealth Education” Survey of Ophthamology Vol. 40, No. 1 (1995) pp. 41-44.
(2) Javitt, J.C. “Preventing Blindness in Americans: The Need for Eyehealth Education” Survey of Ophthamology Vol. 40, No. 1 (1995) pp. 41-44.
(3) “About the NEHEP” National Eye Institute Accessed on 3/27/09 <http://nationaleyeinstitute.net/nehep/about/index.asp>
(4) Basch, C.E. et. al. “The Effect of Health Education on the Rate of Ophthalmic Examinations among African Americans with Diabetes Mellitus” American Journal of Public Health Vol. 89, No. 12 (1999) pp. 1878-1882.