NCT04800718

Increasing Vision Center Service Utilization

Completed NA Last updated 10 March 2022

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Intervention Arm in Eye Diseases in 1,500 participants. Completed in 30 December 2021.

Timeline

22 February 2021

Primary endpoint
30 November 2021

30 December 2021

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Seva Foundation
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	none
Primary purpose	health services research
Enrollment	1,500
Start date	22 February 2021
Primary completion	30 November 2021
Estimated completion	30 December 2021
Sites	1 location across India

Drugs / interventions tested

• Intervention Arm

Conditions studied

• Eye Diseases — all drugs for Eye Diseases →

Sponsor

Seva Foundation

Who can join

Eligibility, any sex, with Eye Diseases. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Background: Vision Centre (primary eyecare facility): a major eye care service model catering to underserved rural areas. The sustainability of rural Vision Centres (VC) in north India is a major challenge due to the under-utilization of services by the local community and stakeholders. This affects self-sustainability and limits the expansion of services in rural areas. Dr. Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital is planning an intervention: door-to-door screening in VC's vicinity areas, to connect with the community.

In this operational research, the investigators plan to study if this intervention package, consisting of door-to-door screening and awareness generation in the service area can increase the utilization of VC services to a minimum of 14 out-patient cases per day within the study period and also analyze its cost-effectiveness for scalability.

Methodology: The study is a randomized experimental intervention, consisting of 2 VCs (intervention arm and control arm) selected from poor low-performing VCs i.e. walk-in out-patient cases≤ 10 per day, in two operational regions (Vrindavan, Mathura District, and Mohammadi, Kheri District) of Uttar Pradesh. Intervention includes door-to-door screening and awareness generation in 8-12 villages surrounding the VC. The control VC will follow existing practices of awareness generation through community activities and health talks. Data collected from each VC for the 4 months of intervention will include, a number of walk-in patients, spectacles advised, and their uptake, referral, and uptake for cataract and specialty surgery as well as operational expenses. Differences across arms in terms of the number of walk-in patients, referrals, uptake of services, and costs involved would be analyzed.

Conclusion: Through this study, the investigators would analyze if our intervention package is effective in increasing the VC service utilization and thus, overall sustainability. The investigators would also study the cost-effectiveness of this intervention, to assess its scalability.

Publications & conference data

1 peer-reviewed publication reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Effect of Door-to-Door Screening and Awareness Generation Activities in the Catchment Areas of Vision Centers on Service Use: Protocol for a Randomized Experimental Study.
   Sabherwal S, Chinnakaran A, Sood I, Garg GK, et al · · 2021 · cited 5× · PMID 34734839 · DOI 10.2196/31951