Abstract
Purpose :
School-based vision screening conducted by teachers is a cost-effective way for detecting early vision impairment in school children in areas where resources are limited. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and correction of vision impairment in a school-based cohort.
Methods :
Children's Healthy Eyes bring Educational Rewards (CHEER) is a non-governmental organization sponsored, large-scale vision screening program that covers 18 counties in Shanxi, China. Teachers from 1081 schools were trained and certified by local ophthalmologists before screening. Baseline screening was conducted in 2014. Presenting visual acuity (VA) was tested at a distance of 3 meters with habitual corrections. A black “E” of standard size (20/40 of Snellen VA) on a white card was used as a tumbling E prototype. Vision impairment (VI) was determined when students failed to identify the direction of the prototype. The follow-up examination was conducted in 3 years after screening. Those failed at baseline but passed the E card test at the follow-up were considered vision corrected. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between correction and risk factors.
Results :
A total of 585,975 students ranged from 1st to 12th grades were screened at the baseline and 525,404 (89.7%) have completed the follow-up by Oct 2017. The baseline population consisted of 45.6%, 31.2%, and 23.2% elementary, middle, and high school students, respectively. The mean (SD) age was 12.7 (3.5) years, and 50.2% were male. The prevalence of presenting VI was 17.3% (95%CI: 17.1%-17.4%), 30.2% (95%CI: 29.9%-30.5%), and 26.4% (95%CI: 26.0%-26.8%) for students of elementary, middle, and high schools, respectively. During follow-up, 22.2% of the students with baseline VI were evaluated, and among them 57% (95%CI: 56.6%-57.4%) were corrected. Multivariable logistic regression analysis suggested that male (OR=-0.07, 95%CI: -0.10 - -0.04), senior grade students (OR=0.06, 95%CI: 0.04-0.08) and longer follow-up time (OR=0.11, 95%CI: 0.09-0.14) were significantly related to the correction of presenting VI.
Conclusions :
In this school-based program in central China, one fourth of students failed the vision screening. However, more than half got their vision corrected in 3 years. Teacher vision program is effective in assessing and monitoring eye health in school children.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.