Resources
Good vision is the foundation for a good life. However, in Aotearoa New Zealand, very little public funding is available for eye care. This means that eye care services are less accessible for some groups of people.
We believe the government of Aotearoa needs to focus their attention on eye care services.
This page is for policy makers, funders and researchers, and anyone interested in our work. Here you can find our (evolving) collection of easy-to-digest resources that describe why we need funding for eye care, and how this funding should be used. This evidence comes from work we have completed ourselves, and from evidence gathered elsewhere. Watch this space!
Underserved groups could be better considered in eye health surveys: everyone counts
Key messages: Eye health surveys generate essential information for planning new services. Some surveys specifically target underserved groups (e.g. people living in rural areas), while many exclude some groups (e.g. those without housing). In future, researchers...
Through the looking glass: ideas to improve access to spectacles in the Western Pacific: a closer look at Australasia
Key messages: Countries concerned with eye health should consider strategies to improve access to spectacles. In Australia and New Zealand, eye health experts identified Indigenous people as the population group to be prioritized in efforts to improve access to...
Summarising the evidence for eye health inequities in Aotearoa: from 1960 to 2022
Key messages New Zealand has very little evidence describing vision impairment or access to eye care services. Reassuringly, recent studies often compare their findings between Māori and Pacific People and other ethnic groups. The evidence we do have consistently...
Access to eye care in an underserved Auckland suburb: what do the people think?
Key messages Limited evidence exists to describe access to eye care in New Zealand. This research has identified two major barriers that make eye health services inaccessible for some people in Aotearoa: the cost, and the lack of nearby services or transport...
Access to diabetes eye care services in Aotearoa New Zealand: who and how often?
Key messages: Everyone with diabetes needs regular access to eye services, but these services are not equally accessible to everyone in Aotearoa. Underserved populations include Māori and Pacific people, younger and older age groups (compared to people in their...
Should Aotearoa New Zealand fund free eye health checks for people over 65?
In 2020, the Government of Aotearoa New Zealand proposed free annual “eye health checks” for New Zealand’s ~700,000 SuperGold card holders aged ≥65 years. To assess the evidence for this policy, we conducted a systematic scoping review of primary eye care services...
Geographic access to eye health services in Aotearoa New Zealand: which communities are being left behind?
Key messages: Travel distance is unlikely to be a barrier to accessing eye health services for most New Zealanders. However, there are communities in the most deprived areas that also have long distances to travel to eye clinics. These communities are often in...
Eye care: what’s the situation in Aotearoa New Zealand?
In 2022, researchers from the Community Eye Health team (Pushkar Silwal, Renata Watene, Jacqueline Ramke) were commissioned to prepare a detailed report that summarises the state of eye care services in Aotearoa New Zealand. The report highlights that while New...
Vision screening in New Zealand pre-school children: is it equitable?
Key messages: The B4 School Check (B4SC) vision screening service is successfully delivered to most New Zealand preschool children. However, for some groups of children, the B4SC is less accessible and more likely to deliver an incomplete test measurement. This...