Cataract surgery is a leading cause of blindness in developing countries [1]. In , there were an estimated 39 million blind individuals and million visually impaired individuals globally. In , the World Health Organization WHO created "Vision - the right for sight" initiative, which aims to eliminate avoidable blindness by worldwide. Despite improvement in access to surgery, many regions worldwide do have adequate coverage for cataract surgery [3].
Despite universal healthcare, cataract remains the major cause of blindness in Brazil [6, 7]. Appropriate public healthcare strategies can be developed to eliminate cataract as a source of blindness using data from studies of barriers to cataract surgery in regions of Brazil.
Currently there are no published studies of barriers to cataract surgery in a Brazilian population. The present study evaluates the barriers to cataract surgery and presents some suggestions to increase the uptake of cataract surgery. SUS covered all the costs for treatment.
Patients were screened in 13 municipalities Table 1. All study subjects signed a consent form. Characteristics of the municipalities served by the Ophthalmic Mobile Unit in [end caption]. The UMO team was composed of ophthalmologists and local health workers from each municipality. Subjects underwent a comprehensive ocular exam. Visual acuity VA was evaluated using an illuminated Snellen E chart and the values were converted to the logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution logMAR for statistical analysis.
The Snellen to logMAR conversion was as follows: counting fingers, hand movement, light perception and without light perception corresponded to 2. All participants underwent an objective and subjective refraction with an autorefractor Accuref-K; Shinn Nippon, Tokyo, Japan and a Outcomes of and barriers to cataract surgery in Sao Paulo State, Brazil.
