Integrated primary eye care interventions in Ethiopia

Nine out of every ten people with visual impairment globally live in low-and-middle-income countries. This imbalance is largely attributable to insufficient services. The World Health Organisation promotes the integration of Primary eyecare (PEC) services into Primary Healthcare (PHC). However, little evidence exists on how such integration can be achieved in low-income settings. We will implement a four-phase research project in Ethiopia which will: - measure the needs and care seeking behaviours of communities, - evaluate the health system's capacity for integration, - co-develop, with the community and stakeholders, acceptable PEC intervention packages, - test and pilot the interventions in repeated processes to identify a working PEC interventions that will inform the delivery of accessible, high-quality, equitable and sustainable PEC services integrated with PHC. This project will provide data on intervention strategies that may help sustainably deliver integrated PEC services with PHC and contribute to the reduction of visual impairment in low-income settings.