Toward U.N. Sustainable Development Goals through Global Improvement of Eye Health Services

Article: Improving eye health essential to achieving Sustainable Development Goals
Source: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (U.K.)
Published: February 25, 2022

In 2015, United Nations member states agreed to seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with broad objectives ranging from from health and education to economic development and environmental stewardship, committing to working toward achieving those goals by 2030. A scoping review conducted by Lancet Global Health  Commission on Global Eye Health looked at 226 studies pertaining to the relationship between eye health services and the SDGs, as mentioned in the study abstracts. Of these, 29 studies were identified as showing a relationship between direct benefits of eye health services and one or more of seven SDGs addressing poverty (SDGs 1, 2, and 8), education (SDG 4), equality (SDGs 5 and 10), and sustainable cities (SDG 11). Among eye health services studied (e.g., cataract surgery, free cataract screening, provision of spectacles, trichiasis surgery, rehabilitation services, and rural community eye health volunteers), cataract surgery and glasses had the largest number of studies that reported a benefit, all the more pertinent in that these interventions easily restore visual acuity rather than merely delay visual deterioration. The study authors highlight that as vision is the primary sense that people rely on to live, work, and contribute to society, indirect effects of improving eye health services likely extend to all other SDGs, in turn affecting not only individuals, but also communities and countries as a whole. Despite undeniable importance, to the point that it is taken for granted until vision is threatened, attention to eye health is often overlooked in the broader context of health care services. Yet, as a representative of the United Nations proffers, "No one should have to live with avoidable blindness or addressable visual impairment in the 21st century when we have proven low-cost solutions to address these conditions. The SDGs represent the highest ambition of the global community, and it is time that eye health is recognised as integral part of that." Studies such as this that highlight the importance of eye health in the context of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals are noteworthy in bringing attention to unified goals that have potential to benefit hundreds of millions of people across the globe.

Solid green arrows indicate relationships with direct evidence of a beneficial effect, black arrows
represent likely indirect effects, and dashed green arrows represent hypothesized beneficial effects

My rating of this study: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Zhang JH, Ramke J, Jan C, et al. "Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals through improving eye health: a scoping review." The Lancet Planetary Health.  6(3):E270-E280. 24 February 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00351-X