Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness in Iran

Purpose To determine the extent and causes of blindness and visual impairment (VI) in the Varamin district, Iran, in 2009. Design Cross-sectional population-based survey. Participants A total of 3000 noninstitutional inhabitants aged ≥50 years from February to August 2009. Methods A standard protocol was used according to the rapid assessment of avoidable blindness (RAAB) method after an initial 4-day workshop. The clusters were selected through probability-proportionate-to-size sampling. In each cluster, people were selected by a “cluster compact sampling” method. Visual acuity (VA) was measured using a standard tumbling “E” chart without and with pinhole. Ophthalmologists examined participants with VA