About Us
Video credit: Jenna Borley, BA Illustration & Animation student at Anglia Ruskin University
What is UKNEHS
The UK National Eye-Health and Hearing Study is a research study being developed to gather data to understand why people in the UK are losing their sight due to preventable causes, and why people continue to live with correctable visual impairment and hearing loss.
Why do we need this data?
We need this data to:
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Understand why current services aren’t effective.
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Develop innovative new service models and interventions.
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Reduce the numbers of people who are negatively affected by hearing loss and visual impairment.
Our survey will also uncover the determinants of poor quality services and the inequitable access to services.
The outputs will translate into a strategy for improved practice and health outcomes for the UK population.
Why is this important?
Sight loss has been estimated to cost the UK more than £28 billion per annum and hearing loss more than £30 billion.
Despite these huge numbers, we don't have the data we need to understand how to improve services and deliver them more efficiently and effectively to reduce these figures.
Eye health and hearing impairment professions and the Government have a duty of care to protect the health of the UK population and to appropriately invest in the prevention, cure and treatment of eye and hearing disease.
To achieve this, we need unbiased, quality, current data.
It is critical that future service demands are projected with confidence, using quality data, in order to plan financially, and target cost-effective interventions to the people who most need them.
The UK NEHS will provide exactly that.