Community Intervention Trials in Eye Health

Abstract

In recent decades, there have been a growing number of randomised controlled trials conducted at the community level, which are known as community intervention trials. The focus on community intervention trials has grown over the last few decades in health care research, shifting the paradigm from individuals to populations. This has been observed in eye health research over recent decades, primarily in low income settings, where the prevalence of vision impairment and blindness is high. When designing a community intervention trial for eye care, various factors that are usually not considered when designing an RCT must be taken account of. The evidence generated from community intervention trials can be applied at a community level, making them highly relevant to test interventions implemented in low-resource settings. Community intervention trials remain very important in testing intervention effectiveness in a format that can have significant implications for public health practice and health policy.