Effectiveness of using teachers to screen eyes of school-going children in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, India
<b>Aim</b> : To assess the effectiveness of teachers in a vision screening program for children in classes 5th to 12th attending school in two blocks of a district of north central India. <b> Materials and Methods</b> : Ophthalmic assistants trained school teachers to measure...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
2009-01-01
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| Series: | Indian Journal of Ophthalmology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.ijo.in/article.asp?issn=0301-4738;year=2009;volume=57;issue=6;spage=455;epage=458;aulast=Sudhan |
| _version_ | 1818932543084298240 |
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| author | Sudhan Anand Pandey Arun Pandey Suresh Srivastava Praveen Pandey Kamta Jain Bhudhendra |
| author_facet | Sudhan Anand Pandey Arun Pandey Suresh Srivastava Praveen Pandey Kamta Jain Bhudhendra |
| author_sort | Sudhan Anand |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <b>Aim</b> : To assess the effectiveness of teachers in a vision screening program for children in classes 5th to 12th attending school in two blocks of a district of north central India. <b> Materials and Methods</b> : Ophthalmic assistants trained school teachers to measure visual acuity and to identify obvious ocular abnormalities in children. Children with visual acuity worse than 20/30 in any eye and/or any obvious ocular abnormality were referred to an ophthalmic assistant. Ophthalmic assistants also repeated eye examinations on a random sample of children identified as normal (approximately 1%, n=543) by the teachers. Ophthalmic assistants prescribed spectacles to children needing refractive correction and referred children needing further examination to a pediatric ophthalmologist at the base hospital. <b> Results</b> : Five hundred and thirty teachers from 530 schools enrolled 77,778 children in the project and screened 68,833 (88.50%) of enrolled children. Teachers referred 3,822 children (4.91%) with eye defects for further examination by the ophthalmic assistant who confirmed eye defects in 1242 children (1.80% of all screened children). Myopia (n=410, 33.01%), Vitamin A deficiency (n=143, 11.51%) and strabismus (n=134, 10.79%) were the most common eye problems identified by the ophthalmic assistant. Ophthalmic assistants identified 57.97% referrals as false positives and 6.08% children as false negatives from the random sample of normal children. Spectacles were prescribed to 39.47% of children confirmed with eye defects. <b>Conclusions</b> : Primary vision screening by teachers has effectively reduced the workload of ophthalmic assistants. High false positive and false negative rates need to be studied further. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T04:34:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f86ae3c1b71040188c7934092ca8620d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0301-4738 1998-3689 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T04:34:09Z |
| publishDate | 2009-01-01 |
| publisher | Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Indian Journal of Ophthalmology |
| spelling | doaj.art-f86ae3c1b71040188c7934092ca8620d2022-12-21T19:53:18ZengWolters Kluwer Medknow PublicationsIndian Journal of Ophthalmology0301-47381998-36892009-01-01576455458Effectiveness of using teachers to screen eyes of school-going children in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, IndiaSudhan AnandPandey ArunPandey SureshSrivastava PraveenPandey KamtaJain Bhudhendra<b>Aim</b> : To assess the effectiveness of teachers in a vision screening program for children in classes 5th to 12th attending school in two blocks of a district of north central India. <b> Materials and Methods</b> : Ophthalmic assistants trained school teachers to measure visual acuity and to identify obvious ocular abnormalities in children. Children with visual acuity worse than 20/30 in any eye and/or any obvious ocular abnormality were referred to an ophthalmic assistant. Ophthalmic assistants also repeated eye examinations on a random sample of children identified as normal (approximately 1%, n=543) by the teachers. Ophthalmic assistants prescribed spectacles to children needing refractive correction and referred children needing further examination to a pediatric ophthalmologist at the base hospital. <b> Results</b> : Five hundred and thirty teachers from 530 schools enrolled 77,778 children in the project and screened 68,833 (88.50%) of enrolled children. Teachers referred 3,822 children (4.91%) with eye defects for further examination by the ophthalmic assistant who confirmed eye defects in 1242 children (1.80% of all screened children). Myopia (n=410, 33.01%), Vitamin A deficiency (n=143, 11.51%) and strabismus (n=134, 10.79%) were the most common eye problems identified by the ophthalmic assistant. Ophthalmic assistants identified 57.97% referrals as false positives and 6.08% children as false negatives from the random sample of normal children. Spectacles were prescribed to 39.47% of children confirmed with eye defects. <b>Conclusions</b> : Primary vision screening by teachers has effectively reduced the workload of ophthalmic assistants. High false positive and false negative rates need to be studied further.http://www.ijo.in/article.asp?issn=0301-4738;year=2009;volume=57;issue=6;spage=455;epage=458;aulast=SudhanBlindnesseffectivenessrefractive servicesschool vision screeningvisual acuity |
| spellingShingle | Sudhan Anand Pandey Arun Pandey Suresh Srivastava Praveen Pandey Kamta Jain Bhudhendra Effectiveness of using teachers to screen eyes of school-going children in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, India Indian Journal of Ophthalmology Blindness effectiveness refractive services school vision screening visual acuity |
| title | Effectiveness of using teachers to screen eyes of school-going children in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, India |
| title_full | Effectiveness of using teachers to screen eyes of school-going children in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, India |
| title_fullStr | Effectiveness of using teachers to screen eyes of school-going children in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, India |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effectiveness of using teachers to screen eyes of school-going children in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, India |
| title_short | Effectiveness of using teachers to screen eyes of school-going children in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, India |
| title_sort | effectiveness of using teachers to screen eyes of school going children in satna district of madhya pradesh india |
| topic | Blindness effectiveness refractive services school vision screening visual acuity |
| url | http://www.ijo.in/article.asp?issn=0301-4738;year=2009;volume=57;issue=6;spage=455;epage=458;aulast=Sudhan |
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