Organizational issues of glaucoma diagnosis in Kazakhstan

Abstract Purpose Analysis of the organizational issues of the diagnosis of glaucoma in Kazakhstan and State programs for health care system: “Salamatty Kazakhstan” and “Densaulyk”. Methods The state of screening for glaucoma was included increased intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement and pachymetry, which was used for the corneal thickness examination. Although the IOP can be increased or be in the normal ranges, thin central cornea thickness generally was ignored by ophthalmologists. In this regard, the indications for examination for glaucoma with systemic hypotension during screening were expanded, and pachymetry was one of the essential diagnostic tool in the clinical guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma as a mandatory research method. Results Sufficiency and effectiveness of the screening program was confirmed by the trend in the number of identified patients with glaucoma depending on age. Correlation between suspected glaucoma and age groups was exposed. The number of registered glaucoma patients was 43,337 patients in 2010. In contrast, after the screening program the figures raised to 68,195 people in 2016. Moreover, there was the increase of newly identified glaucoma cases by 49%: from 70.8 per 100 thousand populations in 2010 to 124 per 100 thousand populations in 2016. Conclusions State programs for health care system development in Republic of Kazakhstan "Salamatty Kazakhstan" (2011-2015) and "Densaulyk" (2016 – 2019) were the initial steps for the prevention of the irreversible blindness and disability due to glaucoma. Screening programs allow to timely and adequate diagnosis of the disease over 40 years of age.