Page 20 - DISINVESTMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF VISION SCREENING TESTS BASED ON THEIR EFFECTIVENESS

CHAPTER 1
AIM AND SCOPE/
OUTLINE OF THIS THESIS
The general aim of this thesis was to study the effectiveness of preverbal, orthoptic vision screening tests to detect strabismus, refractive and combined mechanism amblyopia and to confirm whether the omission of routine vision screening between age 6-24 months would not have a significant negative impact on the severity and total cases of amblyopia detected.
In chapter 2 an inventory was made of current EU paediatric vision and hearing screening programmes.
In chapter 3 the effect of omitting an early population-based vision screen in the Netherlands is evaluated by the use of a micro-simulation model.
In chapter 4 semi structured observations are described of the population-based vision screening tests performed at Child Health Care Centres in The Netherlands.
In chapter 5 the effect of omission of population-based vision screening only at age 6-9 months was analysed.
In chapter 6 the effectiveness of routine population wide preschool vision screening tests at age 6-24 months in the Netherlands was evaluated.
In chapter 7 the high rate of failed visual acuity measurements with the Amsterdam Picture Chart at the age of 36 months was described.
In chapter 8 the first year of implementing vision screening in urban and rural Cluj County in Romania was described.
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