Effect of Presbyopia Correction on Livelihood and Repayment Among Solar Customers in Western Region, Kenya

NCT06774183 | Not Yet Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: P1751-2024
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,085
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

With age, people lose the ability to see things that are near them clearly. This is known as presbyopia. Although this is a normal ageing process, it can be corrected with near vision eyeglasses - colloquially known as reading glasses - and people should not have to "put up with" poor near vision. By improving the ability to see things that are up-close, near vision eyeglasses allow people to perform tasks with greater ease. This improves their quality of life, and increases their productivity and income. DOT Glasses provides people in East Africa with a range of eyeglasses, including those to improve near vision. In addition, products sold to communities through loans repaid at regular intervals (known as asset financing), allow people in underserved communities to harness electricity through solar products and to own electronic devices, such as mobile phones. This also improves their quality of life, and increases their productivity and income. Sun King is one of the leading providers of solar products through loans in Kenya. This study will gather evidence and insights from existing Sun King customers with poor near vision in Busia, Siaya, Vihiga and Kakamega. The investigators will explore how much giving people glasses to improve their near vision impacts their ability to make repayments, their incomes and livelihoods, and their overall quality of life. It will also be studied how the glasses affect participants usage of the solar device or mobile phone.

Conditions

Presbyopia Correction; Visual Impairment and Blindness (Excl Colour Blindness); Repayment Behaviour; Livelihoods

Keywords

Presbyopia; Near visual impairment; Near vision glasses; Income; Kenya; Rural

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Repayment behaviour - time

  The proportion of total payments made on time

  Measured at baseline and end of the study (6 months)

• Product usage

  The proportion of time solar home systems and mobile phones products are enabled

  Measured at baseline and end of the study (6 months)

• Repayment behaviour - percentage revenue

  Percentage of expected revenue collected by the solar home system provider within a six month time period

  Measured at baseline and end of the study (6 months)

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Vision related quality of life

  Measured at baseline and end of the study (6 months)

• Income

  Measured at baseline and end of the study (6 months)

• Livelihood

  Measured at baseline and end of the study (6 months)

Study Arms (2)

Near vision glasses

EXPERIMENTAL

Provision of NVGs for presbyopia correction at baseline for study duration

Other: Near vision glasses for presbyopia correction

No glasses

NO INTERVENTION

Participants in the no intervention control group will be followed over the same period as the near vision glasses intervention group but will have no near vision glasses provided (glasses will be provided at the end of the study).

Interventions

Near vision glasses for presbyopia correction OTHER

Provision of near vision glasses for presbyopia correction to individuals who did not previously have glasses and have correctable presbyopia

Near vision glasses

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 40 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Aged 40 years or older
• NVI secondary to presbyopia: presenting NVA \<N6 at 40cm, correctable with NVGs to N6 or better at 40cm.
• Purchased their product \>=3 months ago with \>= 6 months of repayments remaining on their PAYG contract.
• The product is in the entry level category, priced between KES 7,000 and 30,000 (USD 46 and 196 at prevailing exchange rates during writing).
• Do not currently own a pair of NVGs.
• Living in a target counties of Busia, Siaya, Vihiga or Kakamega.

You may not qualify if:

• Age under 40 years.
• Distance Visual Acuity of worse than 20/40.
• Already own NVGs.
• Presenting NVA N6 or better at 40 centimetres.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Dot Glasses Kenya: lead
• Queen's University, Belfast: collaborator
• University of Stellenbosch: collaborator
• Sun King: collaborator
• Livelihood Impact Fund: collaborator

Related Publications (2)

• Sehrin F, Jin L, Naher K, Das NC, Chan VF, Li DF, Bergson S, Gudwin E, Clarke M, Stephan T, Congdon N. The effect on income of providing near vision correction to workers in Bangladesh: The THRIVE (Tradespeople and Hand-workers Rural Initiative for a Vision-enhanced Economy) randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2024 Apr 3;19(4):e0296115. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0296115. eCollection 2024.

  PMID: 38568883 BACKGROUND

• Reddy PA, Congdon N, MacKenzie G, Gogate P, Wen Q, Jan C, Clarke M, Kassalow J, Gudwin E, O'Neill C, Jin L, Tang J, Bassett K, Cherwek DH, Ali R. Effect of providing near glasses on productivity among rural Indian tea workers with presbyopia (PROSPER): a randomised trial. Lancet Glob Health. 2018 Sep;6(9):e1019-e1027. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30329-2. Epub 2018 Jul 23.

  PMID: 30049615 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Vision Disorders; Blindness; Presbyopia

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Sensation Disorders; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Eye Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Refractive Errors

Study Officials

• Adam Boxer, MEng

  DOT Glasses

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Adam Boxer, MEng

CONTACT

732 587 508; adam.boxer@dotglasses.org

Michael Omondi, BA

CONTACT

718 574 350; michael.omondi@dotglasses.org

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 8, 2025
• First Posted: January 14, 2025
• Study Start: February 1, 2025
• Primary Completion: August 1, 2025
• Study Completion: September 1, 2025
• Last Updated: January 14, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-01