NTD Morbidity and Disability (NMD) Toolkit
Given the cross-cutting nature of many NTD-related disabilities, there is good potential for disability measurement instruments to be used across different NTDs. This is particularly true for aspects like visual impairment, anxiety and depression, activity limitations, restrictions in social participation and stigma and discrimination. An NTD Morbidity and Disability (NMD) Toolkit has been compiled to use this potential. A successful initial validation was carried out in Brazil in 2015, and further validation studies in other countries with other tools and other NTDs will be done in the course of 2016. The instruments currently included in the NMD Toolkit can be found here. However, the toolkit is not a static entity and new tools may be added if they address aspects of NTD-related morbidity and disability that would useful to assess.
Vision-related quality of life (VRQoL) tool
Visual impairment is a global public health problem. With increasing numbers of elderly persons in almost all populations, the public health significance of visual impairment is increasing. NTDs contribute significantly to the prevalence of people living with visual impairment or blindness. As an important outcome of programs aimed at improving the quality of life of persons with visual impairment, a specific instrument like the vision-related quality of life (VRQoL) tool can be helpful. This instrument can be used in NTDs such as trachoma, onchocerciasis and leprosy. The more common and validated instruments, such as WHO/PBD-VF20 and WHOQOL-BREF questionnaires, can also be used to measure the VRQoL. Although there is little research on the effect of trachoma on quality of life, this is an example of a case-control study that has measured the VRQoL in Ethiopia in 2015.