UKNEHS (UK National Eye-Health and Hearing Study)

Brief plain language background

Website: UK National Eye-Health and Hearing Survey

The UK National Eye-Health and Hearing Study is a research study being developed to gather data to understand why people in the UK are losing their sight due to preventable causes, and why people continue to live with correctable visual impairment and hearing loss.

There is currently no robust evidence-base upon which to target the right preventions, treatment, public health services and support to people who really need it. Demand for eye health services is growing, and there is a real need to refresh old data to establish an up to date, accurate baseline for the UK’s eye health.

Barriers to accessibility, lack of awareness of the health benefits of regular sight tests and delays to treatment means that needs are not being met. Better targeting of services and increased awareness of eye and hearing health will improve health and well-being outcomes for the wider UK population.

Avoidable sensory loss comes at a significant economic cost individuals and the UK economy as a whole; in an area of reduced public spending, with many challenges on public finances, we must shift our focus to earlier intervention. UKNEHS data will help to target services effectively.

Aim of the research project

• Establish a common understanding of the number of people in the UK with a sensory loss.
• Determine the prevalence and causes of vision impairment conditions across the UK by region and ethnic group, through gathering robust data for a sub-set of the population.
• Contribute to improvement in the eye health and well-being of the UK population by promoting prevention to reduce risk and instances of avoidable sight loss, enabling people to stay healthy and independent for longer.
• Increase national public awareness and action on eye health conditions, such that the public is better informed to recognise the symptoms and knows where to access treatment.
• Provide the data necessary to baseline other programme interventions aimed at improving the nation’s eye health.
• Support national public commissioning bodies and strengthen industry networks to target resources more effectively in areas of greatest need (clinically and geographically), to prevent visual impairment or avoidable blindness over the medium term.
• Provide data to inform and support targeted research into treatment for specific conditions.
• Detect vision impairment conditions and follow signposted patients to appropriate treatment services at time of survey.
• Improve outcomes for people and deliver an avoided cost benefit to society.
• Enable the UK to meet its obligation to contribute towards the World Health Organisation goal of reducing avoidable sight loss.

With demand growing and resources under increasing pressure it is more important than ever to understand the health needs of our population so that we can target interventions effectively and provide quality care.