Vision impairment and refractive errors in refugees presenting to community optometry clinics in Victoria, Australia

Suganya Selvarajah MDDavid R Dunt PhD MBBSManjula Marella PhDAlex W Hewitt PhD FRANZCONeville Turner BScOptomPiers Carozzi BScOptomGenevieve Napper PhD MPHJonathan A Jackson PhD MCOptom

“While a number of studies have investigated particular aspects of refugee health in Australia, the authors were unable to identify any study of their eye‐health status and their use of eye‐health services. There are, in addition, very few peer‐reviewed epidemiological, or similar, studies concerning eye health of refugees that have been conducted internationally. Of these, a 1998 study reported that the leading causes of vision impairment in a group of Afghan refugees in Pakistan were uncorrected refractive error (46.2 per cent), cataract (32.7 per cent) and corneal opacities (4.8 per cent).” Click Here to read more.