Barriers in attaining low-vision care services: a narrative review

Abstract

The main goal of this narrative review was to examine the literature on the barriers that low-vision patients experience while utilizing low-vision care services (LVCS). Reviewing the difficulties or the barriers that an eye care professional (ECP) encounters when delivering the LVCS is also important. To review the studies about the people with visual impairment and the barriers they encounter in receiving the appropriate LVCS, and the articles discussing the barriers an ECP faces when providing LVCS, an electronic search was carried out using Google Scholar and PubMed. The inclusion criteria were all original articles published between 2012 and 2022 and the subjects who were visually impaired as per the criteria of the WHO and the studies that included the ECPs, to assess their perspectives regarding the LVCS being less approachable. A total of 12 studies met the inclusion criteria, and were reviewed further. Very few studies have been conducted in the last 10 years to investigate the challenges faced by the low-vision patients and the eye care practitioners. The most frequent barriers identified from the patients’ perspective were lack of knowledge, money, transportation, social acceptability and linkage with other health-related problems. Shortage of training, missed referrals, lack of LVCS and devices, and most importantly, lack of awareness were the barriers, according to the ECPs. The majority of the barriers were simple to overcome. So, if the medical community wants to, they can be easily removed. Therefore, the purpose of this review was to describe and highlight such barriers.

Keywords

• eye care professionals
• low-vision care services
• low vision
• visual impairment