This policy brief synthesises hospital outreach data and field observation to examine why women in Bangladesh consistently access eye care — particularly cataract treatment — later and less often than men, despite facing the same underlying disease prevalence.
Key drivers identified
- Household decision-making patterns that prioritise men's health needs and treatment costs.
- Transport and mobility barriers that disproportionately affect women's ability to travel independently for care.
- Caregiving responsibilities that lead women to delay seeking treatment for themselves.
Recommendation: gender-disaggregated data
The brief's central recommendation is that national eye health planning adopt gender-disaggregated reporting as standard practice, rather than treating the gender gap as anecdotal. This recommendation emerged from NUK's national policy dialogue on gender in eye health care.
Outreach screening — rather than passive hospital-based services alone — remains the most effective tool documented so far for narrowing this access gap, a finding reflected in outcomes data from Kishoreganj Eye Hospital's annual reporting.
Program connection
This brief directly informs ongoing outreach design across NUK's Community & Eye Hospitals program.