Ocular health needs of Afghan refugees in a Canadian city: the burden of refractive error and sight-threatening disease

To estimate prevalence of visual impairment and non-refractive ocular disease and describe barriers among recently arrived Afghan adult refugees in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). This cross-sectional study used data from five hospital-based screening clinics in 2023 at St. Michael’s Hospital. Participants were recruited from two resettlement agencies in the GTHA and were eligible for inclusion if they were refugees from Afghanistan. Translator-assisted surveys and ocular examinations were conducted. We reported descriptive statistics for continuous variables as means with standard deviations and categorical variables as counts and percentages. Overall, 200 adults were included in the analysis. The mean age was 35.9 years and 46.0% were female. Slit lamp and visual acuity testing was conducted in 122 participants and better eye uncorrected distance visual acuity worse than 20/40 was found in 13.9% of individuals and 64.7% of them improved to 20/40 or better with pinhole. Non-refractive morbidity included glaucoma suspicion in 5.7% of participants. Reported barriers included newcomer challenges such as navigation difficulties. Recently arrived Afghan refugees in the GTHA had a high burden of correctable refractive error and measurable non-refractive disease, with a meaningful share at risk of irreversible vision loss.