Prevalence of vision problems in an indigent urban population

Low-income individuals may encounter difficulties in gaining access to routine health care. Certain clinics operate to serve indigent people. The University of Missouri-St. Louis, School of Optometry, in conjunction with New Life Evangelistic Center, offers routine eye care in such a clinic.

A retrospective epidemiologic analysis of 2 years of eye clinic records from the center was performed to determine the prevalence of vision anomalies in the study population and the benefit of the availability of this care.

The mean patient age was 37.8 years, with a high percentage of the patients being black males. Ninety-five percent of the patients required a change in spectacle prescription, improving acuities from an average of 20/70 O.D. and 20/70(-3) O.S. to 20/25(+1) O.D. and 20/25 O.S. This result indicates a statistically significant improvement in exit visual acuities as compared with entrance visual acuities (p < 0.0001). The mean spherical refractive error was -0.77 +/- 2.50 D O.D. and -0.77 +/- 2.45 D O.S. The mean cylinder in each eye was -1.00 +/- 0.75 D. Most cylinders were oriented with-the-rule Ocular disease was present in 11.9% of the patients; systemic disease in 10.4% of patients. Referrals to other health care practitioners were made in 5.9% of cases.

This study demonstrates that indigent patients receive a useful and needed service from clinics that provide routine eye care to this population.