Eye Care in Federally Qualified Health Centers

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Ophthalmology
• Personal Author:
  Woodward, Maria A. ; Hicks, Patrice M. ; Harris-Nwanyanwu, Kristen ; Modjtahedi, Bobeck ; Chan, R.V. Paul ; Vogt, Emily L. ; Lu, Ming-Chen ; Newman-Casey, Paula Anne
• Description:
  Purpose:
  
  To assess changes in vision care availability at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) between 2017 and 2021 and whether neighborhood-level demographic social risk factors (SRFs) associated with eye care services provided by FQHCs.
  
  Design:
  
  Secondary data analysis of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) data and 2017–2021 American Community Survey (ACS).
  
  Participants:
  
  Federally Qualified Health Centers.
  
  Methods:
  
  Patient and neighborhood characteristics for SRFs were summarized. Differences in FQHCs providing and not providing vision care were compared via Wilcoxon-Mann–Whitney tests for continuous measures and chi-square tests for categorical measures. Logistic regression models were used to test the associations between neighborhood measures and FQHCs providing vision care, adjusted for patient characteristics.
  
  Main Outcome Measures:
  
  Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for neighborhood-level predictors of FQHCs providing vision care services.
  
  Results:
  
  Overall, 28.5% of FQHCs (n = 375/1318) provided vision care in 2017 versus 32% (n = 435/1362) in 2021 with some increases and decreases in both the number of FQHCs and those with and without vision services. Only 2.6% of people who accessed FQHC services received eye care in 2021. Among the 435 FQHCs that provided vision care in 2021, 27.1% (n = 118) had added vision services between 2017 and 2021, 71.5% (n = 311) had been offering vision services since at least 2017, and 1.4% (n = 6) were newly established. FQHCs providing vision care in 2021 were more likely to be in neighborhoods with a higher percentage of Hispanic/Latino individuals (OR, 1.08, 95% CI, 1.02–1.14, P = 0.0094), Medicaid-insured individuals (OR, 1.08, 95% CI, 1.02–1.14, P = 0.0120), and no car households (OR, 1.07, 95% CI, 1.01–1.13, P = 0.0142). However, FQHCs with vision care, compared to FQHCs without vision care, served a lower percentage of Hispanic/Latino individuals (27.2% vs. 33.9%, P = 0.0007), Medicaid-insured patients (42.8% vs. 46.8%, P < 0.0001), and patients living at or below 100% of the federal poverty line (61.3% vs. 66.3%, P < 0.0001).
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Vision care services are available at a few FQHCs, localized to a few states. Expanding eye care access at FQHCs would meet patients where they seek care to mitigate vision loss to underserved communities.
  
  Financial Disclosure(s):
  
  Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Adult Aged Female Health Services Accessibility Humans Male Middle Aged Odds Ratio Ophthalmology Safety-net Providers United States Young Adult

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• Keywords:
  Community Health Centers Eye Care Federally Qualified Health Centers Health Resources And Services Administration Vision Services
• Source:
  Ophthalmology. 131(10):1225-1233
• Pubmed ID:
  38697267
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11416322
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  P30 EY001792/EY/NEI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 EY031033/EY/NEI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 EY031337/EY/NEI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; K12 GM111725/GM/NIGMS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 EB032328/EB/NIBIB NIH HHSUnited States/ ; K23 EY030530/EY/NEI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; P30 EY007003/EY/NEI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; UL1 TR002240/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 DP006442/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  131
• Issue:
  10
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f18631e7956cf6863a475a3b6474ebf1ecf3b1baf114fb42ebf399542092d6f95a651ef9346c38166df5306d812b63c842c069e327cf75c2ed9f424cc3e13e6d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164022/cdc_164022_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 276.39 KB ]