Vision status of children aged 7 - 15 years referred from school vision screening in Norway during 2003 - 2013: a retrospective study

Abstract

Background: Undetected vision problems are an important cause of reduced academic achievement, performance in everyday life and self-esteem. This receives little attention in national health care services even though most of these vision problems are easily correctable. Data on how many schoolchildren are affected are limited. This study aims to increase the knowledge of vision status in primary and secondary school children by retrospectively describing the vision status of children referred from vision screening during the ten year period 2003 – 2013. Methods: Of 1126 (15 %) children referred to the university eye clinic, all 782 who attended were included. Patient records were reviewed with regards to symptoms, refractive error, best corrected logMAR visual acuity (BCVA), binocular vision, ocular health and management outcomes. Results: Previously undetected vision problems were confirmed in 650 (83 %) of the children. The most frequent outcomes were glasses (346) or follow up (209), but types of treatment modalities varied with age. Mean refractive errors were hyperopic for all age groups, but reduced with age (ANOVA, p < .001). Refractive errors did not change across the decade (linear regression, all p > .05). Mean BCVAs were better than 0.0 and improved with age (ANOVA, p < .001). The most prevalent symptoms were headaches (171), near vision problems (149), and reduced distance vision (107). Conclusions: The vision screening identified children with previously undetected visual problems. There was no change in refractive errors for either age group over the decade. Importantly, most of the problems were solved with glasses. Types of visual problems varied with age, which stresses the importance of regular eye examinations, and raised awareness among parents and teaching staff. Keywords: Health care services, children, vision examination, visual status, refractive errors.

Refractive Error Prevalence among School Children in Dadeldhura District of Nepal

“…[2][3][4][5][6] Moderate prevalence rates varying from 21% to 34% have been observed in Norway, Germany and USA. [7][8][9] There is a huge global loss (US$ 202 000 million) in gross domestic productdue to uncorrected refractive error. 10 Indo Aryans, reported to have migrated from south and west of Nepal, had lower prevalence of myopia in comparison to Mangols who are reported to have migrated from north and east of Nepal.…”