Purpose:
According to the Maternal and Childhood Health Lawin Japan, all children at the age of 1.5 and 3 years undergophysical and developmental checkup including dental, eye, andhearing examinations. At the first step, questionnaires askingspecific problems such as squint and printed Landolt rings forlearning of visual acuity testing at home (the latter only for3–year–old children) are sent to families, and thenfamilies bring children to the regional Health Centers. At thesecond step, nurses at the Health Centers measure uncorrectedvisual acuity and inspect eye alignment. At the third step,children with suspected diseases are sent to ophthalmologistsfor the detailed eye examinations. The final diagnoses weresent back to the Health Centers. In the 2005 ARVO meeting, wereported the prevalence of strabismus obtained from data inthis system in the year 2000–2002. In this study, we surveyedthe original data once again for more accuracy and extendedthe study to include new data in 2003 and 2004.
Methods:
Documents of the final diagnoses made by ophthalmologistsand sent back to the Health Centers in Okayama City (with thepopulation of 670 thousands) were surveyed to elucidate theprevalence of strabismus in 1.5 and 3–year–old childrenin Okayama City in 5 years from 2000 to 2004.
Results:
Children at the age of 1.5 years:
Children at the age of 3 years:
Conclusions:
The prevalence rates of strabismus at 1.5 and 3years old in this population were 0.01–0.10% and 0.23–0.39%,respectively, lower compared with the other population. Thenumber of intermittent exotropia increased with the age.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence • esotropia and exotropia • strabismus: diagnosis and detection