Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #106899

Renée O. Mika, OD, Michigan College of Optometry, Ferris State University, 1310 Cramer Circle, PEN 422, Big Rapids, MI 49307, 231.591.2182, mikar@ferris.edu and Harry E. Mika II, PhD, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, Central Michigan University, Anspach Hall 142, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859.

The Healthy Vision 2010 objectives are arguably the most comprehensive contribution to a national health care agenda yet proposed by the vision community. However, its core goal – to advance the nation's eye health – is as encumbered as any public health goal by the social factors that both (negatively) influence the health status of vulnerable populations and create barriers and complications to care delivery. Exclusive reliance on health policy probably cannot mitigate the range of social injustices that so profoundly affect health, including vision. Non-marginal changes in social policy must be a prelude to the lofty aspiration of improving national vision health. It is not possible to reduce eye health disparities without acknowledging and aggressively confronting a myriad of social, economic and cultural conditions that result, for example, in a higher prevalence of ocular disease, visual impairment and blindness, limited access to care, compromised quality of care, and limited personal and community resources available for vision care.

One articulation of Healthy Vision 2010 is the awards scheme of the National Eye Institute for community-based service delivery. The role of local initiatives in acknowledging and addressing social factors that affect visual health will be examined. What is the extent to which eye care professionals, community-based organizations and communities move from pilot demonstrations that may only address the effects of social determinants, to sustainable intervention practices that seek to engage and perhaps even overcome the social determinants of vision health?

Learning Objectives:

Participants will
• learn of Healthy Vision 2010 objectives,
• understand the determinants of vision health, and
• develop awareness of requisites of responsive intervention strategies.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation