CHS Researcher Participates in European Association for Vision and Eye Research Congress 2022
2 min readVALENCIA, Spain — October 13-15, Senior Researcher Aida Giloyan (MPH ’07) of the Garo Meghrigian Institute for Preventive Ophthalmology in the Zvart Avedisian Onanian Center for Health Services Research and Development of the American University of Armenia (AUA), was competitively selected to be one of the presenters at the European Association for Vision and Eye Research (EVER) Congress 2022. EVER is the leading ophthalmological research association in Europe covering all areas of ophthalmology and the visual sciences. Among the association’s main activities is the research meeting organized annually. EVER aims to promote different aspects of research and dissemination of knowledge concerning the eye and vision through publications, exchange of information, and meetings.
Aida Giloyan made a poster presentation on the impact of visual impairment and other risk factors on health-related quality of life among people living in retirement homes in Armenia. As her study indicates, the presence of chronic non-communicable diseases, lack of physical activity, sleeping disorders, lack of emotional and instrumental support, presence of depressive symptoms, and uncorrected refractive error are all associated with worse health-related quality of life. Blindness was found to be significantly associated with physical health-related limitations, while uncorrected refractive error was found to have an inverse relationship with general health. The study found a high prevalence of uncorrected refractive errors, visual impairment, and blindness among people in retirement homes. The author suggests that regular eye screening programs and distribution of spectacles could improve eye health in the target population. A focus on people with chronic non-communicable diseases and depressive symptoms is warranted.
The abstract will be published in EVER Congress website and in Acta Ophthalmologica online journal in January 2023.
The AUA Turpanjian College of Health Sciences works actively to improve population health and health services in Armenia and the region through interdisciplinary education and development of health professionals to be leaders in public health, nursing, health services research and evaluation, and health care delivery and management.
