Blindness Among Latinos Could Be Sharply Reduced By Program Involving Their Children, Executive of California Nonprofit Group Says

Business Wire, Oct 25, 1999

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 1999--

Tens of thousands of Latinos could be saved from blindness every year through the nationwide implementation of a program like one being conducted by a California nonprofit organization, an executive of that group said today (Oct. 25).

"Latinos and other Hispanics are four times as likely as the general population to be stricken by diabetes," said Lee A. Jackman, Vice President and Director of Public Affairs of the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles.

"Diabetes attacks the retina and can cause blindness if not detected and treated early," Jackman noted. "Ninety-eight percent of individuals with diabetes who go blind do so needlessly."

The occasion for Jackman's remarks was the annual meeting of the Association of Ophthalmology Development Officers (AODO) at the Sheraton Safari Hotel in Orlando. The event is being held in conjunction with a meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

The AODO is composed of development officers of departments of ophthalmology at leading universities across the United States. These officers are charged with raising funds for their departments.

Jackman, who this year is chairman of the AODO, said the Doheny Eye Institute is spending $1.6 million on a program that uses Latino children as communication conduits to get information to their parents.

"Children attending schools in areas of Los Angeles where Latinos are predominant are given questionnaires to take home," Jackman explained. "The questionnaires are designed to determine whether anyone in the family has a history of diabetes. Families that do have a history of diabetes are provided with educational materials, invited to educational seminars and urged to ask their physician for thorough eye exams.

"In most instances, blindness from diabetes can be prevented simply by having an examination by an ophthalmologist once a year. But studies and experience have shown that most adult Latinos don't bother to get annual eye exams."

Jackman said this is ironic because "Latino parents will do anything for their children but all too often neglect their own health."

The Doheny Eye Institute executive said 6,000 students in East Los Angeles have been screened in the initial phase of the new program. About 250 of those responding to the questionnaire indicated that someone in their family had diabetes, Jackman said.

After getting the questionnaires back, Doheny invites the parents and the children to an evening that begins with dinner and is followed by an hour-long program about the relationship between diabetes and blindness and the need for annual eye examinations.

The Doheny Eye Institute, founded in 1947, is a public benefit, nonprofit corporation that is recognized as one of the top ophthalmologic research centers in the United States. Its physicians and basic researchers are involved in national, muilticenter research projects that follow program priorities of the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health. It also conducts a number of research projects initiated in the Los Angeles area.