Wearing reading glasses for Presbyopia Photograph: Peek Vision
A new study in India has found that community health workers using a new digital tool can select appropriate reading glasses with a high level of accuracy, potentially helping millions of people access simple, affordable treatment for age-related near vision impairment.
Published in Frontiers in Ophthalmology, the research found that the new Peek Vision presbyopia calculator recommended exactly the same strength of reading glasses as an optometrist in 92.9% of cases, rising to 99.5% when allowing a difference of just 0.50 dioptres.
Presbyopia is the age-related loss of the eye’s ability to focus on nearby objects, making everyday activities such as reading, sewing and using a mobile phone increasingly difficult. An estimated 826 million people worldwide have near vision impairment caused by uncorrected presbyopia, despite the condition often being easily corrected with inexpensive reading glasses.
The study, involving researchers from Peek Vision, the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Dr Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, assessed whether community health workers could use the calculator to provide appropriate glasses without requiring an optometrist to assess every patient.
Researchers recruited 378 adults aged 35 and over in rural Uttar Pradesh, India, who had near vision impairment but relatively good distance vision.
Three trained community health workers used the smartphone-based calculator to assess participants in their homes. The tool combines age, near vision test results and cataract surgery history to recommend an initial lens strength, then guides users through testing different glasses until an appropriate correction is identified.
Participants were subsequently assessed by an optometrist who did not know the calculator’s recommendation, allowing the researchers to compare the results independently.
The calculator’s recommendations matched the optometrist’s exactly for 351 of the 378 participants. Only two participants had a difference of 1.00 dioptre, and none had a greater discrepancy. The process took an average of approximately two minutes and 17 seconds.
The findings suggest that digital decision-support tools could enable community health workers to provide ready-made reading glasses accurately, particularly in areas where access to optometrists is limited.
Importantly, the calculator is designed to operate within a broader eye screening and referral system. People whose vision cannot be corrected with ready-made glasses, or who have other eye health concerns, are referred for further assessment rather than being treated through the calculator alone.
The research supports the aims of the World Health Organization’s SPECS 2030 initiative, which seeks to expand access to affordable refractive error services worldwide.
The authors note that further research is needed to assess the tool in other populations and compare its performance with alternative community-based approaches. Nevertheless, the findings provide evidence that community health workers, supported by appropriate digital guidance, could play a greater role in addressing the substantial unmet need for near vision correction.
Publication
Katibeh M, Sabherwal S, Javed M, Watts E, Latorre-Arteaga S, Bolster NM, Coverley D, Pintus A, Hewitt V, Thaker N, Bastawrous A. A novel digital tool to guide provision of near vision glasses for presbyopia correction in the community. Frontiers in Ophthalmology. August 2026. https://doi.org/10.3389/fopht.2026.1891054