Aotearoa New Zealand currently has insufficient information on which to plan equitable eye care services.
The School of Optometry and Vision Science is assembling a team and seeking support to undertake Aotearoa New Zealand’s first National Eye Health Survey during 2022/2023. Other team members represent the School of Population Health and the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Auckland as well as Community Organizations.
The aim of the National Eye Health Survey is to provide national data on the prevalence of vision impairment and its main causes, as well as access to eye care services for three distinct groups: 1) Māori, 2) Pacific People, 3) other New Zealanders. This information can guide future policy formulation, eye health service delivery planning and economic analysis.
The team will run a Pilot Survey in 2021 to refine the recruitment strategy and to inform the calculations of how many people need to be recruited in the full survey. We are also exploring partnerships to support effective implementation of the survey across Aotearoa.
For more information as the project develops, see https://visionresearch.auckland.ac.nz/national-eye-health-survey/ or email eyehealthsurvey@auckland.ac.nz.