As research is mandatory for the prevention of blindness & saving-sight due to its effective role in:
- Shaping the national policy & facilitate decision making to integrate eye-health within the overall health-care on the national level.
- Guide & prioritize delivery of eye-care services in different environments.
- Contribute the eye-care providers with the international media and standards for adequate quality.
Therefore, Al Noor Magrabi Foundation with the Ministry of Health in Egypt and a group of international research bodies including; British Columbia Center for Epidemiology and International Ophthalmology , Canada, International Center for Eye Health of London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Lions Aravind Institute for Community Ophthalmology (LAICO), India Kilimanjaro Institute for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO),Tanzania are engaged in partnership to cover different areas for research including:
- Epidemiological profile for eye health
(Prevalence, incidence, determinants and related risk factors for blindness & low vision)
- Profile for eye care service delivery
(Status quo, community-needs assessment, gap analysis, impact of eye-care services delivered)
- Social and environmental determinants for eye health
- (Status quo, risk groups, gender, cultural & traditional factors and influence of community leaders)
- Clinical studies
- (Pattern of common eye diseases, clinical protocols followed, evaluation of interventions)
Research Methodologies:
- Population-based studies
- Appraisal and assessment studies
- Intervention and control studies
- Prospective and retrospective clinical studies
Al Noor Magrabi Foundation has the capacity to design and frame the research protocols for any of the aforementioned studies and to process, manage & analyze the related data and to prepare materials ready for presentation & for international publication for its own &/or for others.
Success Stories:
Trachoma Prevalence:
Egypt was considered as trachoma-free country till 2003.
Research teams of Al Noor Magrabi Foundation in coordination with the Ministry of Health had undertaken evidence-based epidemiological eye surveys in three environmentally differentiated governorates; Menofia (1999), Menia (2001) & Fayoum (2003).
The biostatistics findings of the study had revealed that blindness due to trachoma is still a public eye-health problem in Egypt. The prevalence of active trachoma among children of 2 – 12 age-group in each of the three governorates respectively was 36.5%, 42%, 46% which exceed the 20%level defined by WHO.
Accordingly; the MOH has re-considered trachoma as a public health problem in Egypt, modified its treatment & preventive policies and addressed the WHO to re-list within the EM regional priorities for trachoma control in addition to link Egypt with the global initiative of the Right to Sight by the year 2020 “VISION 2020
