Communities IMPACT diabetes center's vision health toolkit: Utilizing lay health social service providers as messengers of vision health information

Background:Racial/ethnic disparities in vision impairment are prevalent as are low rates for recommended eye screenings. A community-academic partnership aimed to improve vision screening in a low-income, minority neighborhood by developing a multi-component vision health toolkit for social service providers to promote eye exams among their consumers. Methods:Thirty-seven social service, faith-based and health organizations were recruited to adopt the vision toolkit. We surveyed a subset of consumers at 15 intervention and 3 control sites before and 6 months after disseminating the toolkits to assess receipt of comprehensive eye exams and comorbidities. Results:The 156 consumers surveyed were largely female (68%), Black (55%) and had high diabetes (23%) and hypertension (33%) rates. At baseline, 72% reported an eye exam in the past year and there was no difference in eye exam rates in the past year between intervention and control sites. Six month follow-up surveys were completed with 62% of consumers. Respondents at intervention sites were more likely to report a comprehensive eye exam in the past 6 months (45% vs. 24%, p=0.06). Diabetics at intervention sites were also more likely to have had an eye exam in the past 6 months than respondents with diabetes at control sites (66% vs. 33%, p<0.01). Conclusions:Even in a small pilot project, we demonstrated a significant increase in comprehensive eye examinations at intervention sites compared with control sites and among the targeted group - individuals with diabetes. Novel, scalable approaches in community-based settings are a viable means of preventing and controlling diabetes complications, including vision loss.