Page 106 - DISINVESTMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF VISION SCREENING TESTS BASED ON THEIR EFFECTIVENESS

CHAPTER 6
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE the effectiveness of preverbal orthoptic tests at age 6, 9, 14 and 24 months in population-wide screening was assessed.
METHODS Two consecutive birth-cohorts at 134 centres were compared. At general health screening visits, children born July-December 2011 were vision screened four times between 6-24 months with inspection, pupillary reflexes, eye motility, Hirschberg, cover test and monocular pursuit. Children born January-June 2012 were vision screened at general screening visits only in case of visually apparent abnormalities or positive family history. After referral, cause and severity of amblyopia were determined. Visual acuity was measured in all children at 36 and 45 months.
RESULTS The control and intervention group comprised 5649 versus 5162 children. Amblyopia was diagnosed in 185 (3.3%) versus 159 children (3.1%), outside of screening in 21 (11.4%) versus 25 (15.7%). Between 6-24 months 44 (23.8%) versus 27 (17%) (RR = 0.67 [95%CI 0.42, 1.09]) were referred and after visual acuity measurement 120 (64,9%) versus 107 (67,3%). Of 109 versus 108 children with refractive or bilateral amblyopia, 94 (86,2%) versus 92 (85,2%) were detected with visual acuity measurements. Visual acuity of the amblyopic eye, after referral, was not significantly different between groups (p 0.896), nor was the time to amblyopia diagnosis (intention to screen (p 0.55); per protocol (p 0.11)).
CONCLUSIONS The effectiveness of vision screening was not influenced by omission of orthoptic tests at general health screening at 6-24 months. Refractive and bilateral amblyopia were almost exclusively found by visual acuity measurements.
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