Cataract Operations by Arvind Medicos Services: Attempts for Awareness and Brining Hope for Commoner from Tamil Nadu, to Enjoy Life, Colors and for Well-being

Purpose: To assess the barriers for delayed uptake of cataract surgery in an area with high cataract surgical rate. Materials and method: A short-term descriptive study was conducted in patients with bilateral blindness due to cataract presenting to our hospital. Socio-demographic data were entered in a proforma. Questionnaire, surveying knowledge about cataract and barriers to cataract surgery, was administered by myself in the local language (Tamil). Results: 87829 patients operated for cataract out of which 2273 had best corrected visual acuity less than 3/60 in better eye contributing to 2.587% of total blindness. We interviewed 150 patients (61.3% women, 38.7% men) with mean age of 62.8years. Most of this patient were illiterate (68%) from rural area (76%). Bilateral cataract (visual acuity less than 3/60) responsible for bilateral blindness contributed mainly by mature cataract (58%), followed by (18.7%) of near mature cataract, (13.3%) of hyper-mature cataract and (10%) by brown cataract. Lack of awareness about cataract (68%) and services available, no one to accompany thepatient to hospital (48%), associated systemic disease (42%), lack of time (37.3%), cost of surgery (30.7%), fear of surgery (17. 3%), no nearby hospital (10.7%) transport cost (9.3%)etc. are the major barrier delay uptake of cataract surgery were found in our study. Conclusion: It is concluded that Awareness about cataract and increase utilization of servicesto be intensified with the help of health care worker and need for further expansion of outreach services.