AECP brochure “Countdown towards 2020: Activities and Statistics”

4.1.

METHODOLOGY OF COLLECTION AND PROCESSING OF THE EYE HEALTH DATA AMONG THE POPULATION SCREENED BY THE AECP Parallel to general screening, the Armenian Eye Project has gathered certain information on those screened. Each person referred to the AECP for screening had filled in a questionnaire which included sets of questions related to the general health status (with an emphasis on common medical problems that affect vision: diabetes, hypertension, and infectious diseases); healthcare, frequency of visits to eye doctors, as well as perceptions of the population regarding healthy lifestyles and attitudes. On the last (fourth) page, the AECP medical team inserted results of eye examination, diagnostics, as well as necessary or proposed medical intervention. The data of the filled-in questionnaire was entered in a special software, which made up the AECP database. Please, see the Annex 1 for the modified questionnaire, used in the tours of 2007-2009, and 2010.

Monitoring and evaluation, as well as regular feedback in the logistical, organizational and conceptual aspects have allowed the AECP to work towards improvement during the entire process of the work. A large number of protocols, guidelines, standards were prepared to facilitate the work of the screening groups in the field, as well as standardize the reporting process. The AECP questionnaire has been modified, which allowed having a more detailed breakdown of diseases and keeping comparability with the previous data at the same time. For this reason, the analysis of the available data presented in this brochure is more geared towards the third round.

It is worth mentioning that the AECP database is not a result of sample survey, since the participation of the population in the AECP screening has been of a voluntary nature. The screening groups have rendered services to all those who elected to come to the AECP screening. For that reason, the age-gender as well as geographic (rural-urban and marzes) proportion of the screened population had not corresponded to the demographic and geographic characteristics of the country. Therefore, to receive reliable estimates on the prevalence of eye diseases, the received data have been weighed. Thus, the mentioned proportions were rectified to comply with the country’s overall demographic characteristics.

In this survey, estimations and indicators have been calculated mainly for the adult population (16 years old and above) and particularly, 50+, due to the fact that the latter are the main age group in risk. In addition, the database contains dynamic time series which correspond to the two-year-long three tours that the AECP has accomplished in nine marzes of Armenia in 2003-2005, 2005-2007 and 2007-2009. Therefore, the comparison of results in dynamics has certain specifics, which the reader should approach with caution.

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