Abstract
Purpose: :
It has been reported that a better understanding of amblyopia by parents leads to better visual acuity outcomes in their children. Here we report the results of an educational session on parental understanding of amblyogenic factors.
Methods: :
Parents participated in a prospective assessment of their knowledge about amblyopia before and after an educational session in the setting of a vision screening program. Inclusion criteria included completion of both the pre- and post-education assessment. Questions targeted parental understanding of five concepts, including amblyopia as a problem of vision development in the brain, risk factors for amblyopia, the need for urgent follow-up when a risk factor is detected, leukocoria as an emergent sign, and refractive error. The assessment results were analyzed using the Wilcoxon sign rank test.
Results: :
The number of parents educated from June through October 2011 was 2615, with 2312 (88%) completing both a pre and post education evaluation. The median pre-assessment score was 70% which increased to 90% after parental education (P<0.0001). Improvement was seen in all concepts evaluated. The greatest improvement in parental understanding was seen in the concept of recognizing leukocoria as a potentially vision and life-threatening sign (68% and 96% correct before and after education, respectively) (P<0.0001).
Conclusions: :
There was a statistically significant improvement in assessment scores among parents after their educational session. This may translate into better outcomes for children diagnosed with amblyopia.
Keywords: amblyopia • visual development: infancy and childhood • screening for ambylopia and strabismus