Research Article

Spectacle Coverage and Spectacles Use among Elderly Population in Residential Care in the South Indian State of Andhra Pradesh

Table 1

Spectacle coverage for refractive errors and presbyopia.

Total in the groupRefractive errorsPresbyopia
Met need 
(%)
Unmet need 
(%)
Spectacle coverage
(%)
Met need 
(%)
Unmet need 
(%)
Spectacle coverage
(%)

Age group (years)
 50–6921411 (5.1)35 (16.4)23.926 (12.1)77 (36.0)25.2
 70 and above28029 (10.4)39 (13.9)42.639 (13.9)130 (46.4)23.1
Gender
 Male1089 (8.3)12 (11.1)42.926 (24.1)43 (39.8)37.7
 Female38631 (8.0)62 (16.1)33.339 (10.1)164 (42.5)19.2
Education level
 No education35617 (4.8)65 (18.3)5.319 (5.3)168 (47.2)10.2
 Any education13823 (16.7)9 (6.5)33.346 (33.3)39 (28.3)54.1
Total 49440 (8.1)74 (15.0)35.165 (13.2)207 (41.9)23.9

Not statistically significant for age group and gender; for education.
for age and gender; not statistically significant for gender.
Met need (refractive errors): defined as unaided visual acuity <6/18 in either eye, which improved to 6/18 or better with spectacles.
Unmet need (refractive errors): defined as the number of subjects who had unaided visual acuity <6/18 in either eye but improved to 6/18 or better with pinhole and had no spectacles.
Met need (presbyopia): defined as unaided near vision <N8, but improved to N8 or better with the spectacles they were using.
Unmet need (presbyopia): defined as unaided near vision <N8 and had no spectacles, but improved to N8 or better with a near addition.
Spectacle coverage (refractive errors and presbyopia) (%) = met need/(met need + unmet need) × 100.