Reading glasses helped teacher Fatema Akter read her school materials more easily and to accomplish detailed stitching.

A pair of reading glasses increases the earning power in low-income communities by 33%, new research revealed.

The Tradespeople and Hand-workers Rural Initiative (Thrive) study, conducted by VisionSpring, BRAC (an international development organisation founded in Bangladesh) and Queen’s University Belfast, found the provision of reading glasses improved livelihoods and quality of life and reduced poverty. No other health-related intervention has reported an effect this impactful for income, said Ella Gudwin, CEO of VisionSpring.

The results also uncovered several benefits for first-time wearers of reading glasses, including higher earnings (median income rose from US$35.3 to US$47.1 within eight months, compared to the control group), the ability to return to work, enabling illiterate participants to accomplish work and household tasks and improving near-vision quality of life by 16%.

In addition to measuring the impact of reading glasses on income, the study highlighted the opportunity to increase access to vision care by training non-medical personnel, such as community health workers, to conduct basic sight tests and dispense ready-made reading glasses.