Overcoming barriers to pediatric visual acuity screening through education plus provision of materials.

PURPOSE: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that LEA and HOTV optotypes be used for vision screening and that adhesive tape be used to occlude one eye during testing. We have developed an educational program designed to improve the quality and efficiency of vision screening. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effectiveness of this program. METHODS: All 672 pediatric doctors and nurses in the state of Alaska were surveyed by mail to assess their screening protocol and the number of patients cared for annually. Respondents received educational material, including an instructional video, eye patches for visual acuity testing, and a critical line HOTV test box. Subjects were resurveyed 3 months later to determine whether the instructional intervention altered their established protocol. RESULTS: Of the 672 practitioners contacted for the survey, 239 (35.6%) responded, representing 31,000 patients, or 62% of all preschool children in Alaska. Use of recommended optotypes was rare (Lea, 3%, HOTV, 7%) compared with the use of nonrecommended optotypes (including use of the E test by 40% of respondents). The postintervention survey was answered by 107 (16%) practitioners. Of these, 24 (23%) reported that they had begun using an adhesive patch for visual acuity testing, whereas 19 (18%) had begun using AAP-recommended testing optotypes. CONCLUSIONS: In-office video education and provided adhesive eye patches increased the use of patches in primary care preschool vision screening. Mail delivery was less effective than anticipated.

Preverbal photoscreening for amblyogenic factors and outcomes in amblyopia treatment: early objective screening and visual acuities.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that infant photoscreening yields better results than visual acuity screening in preschool-aged children. With conventional vision screening, the patient must be able to provide monocular visual acuity cooperation, whereas objective screening for amblyogenic factors can be done at much younger ages. METHODS: From February 1996 through February 2006, Alaska Blind Child Discovery photoscreened 21,367 rural and urban Alaskan children through grade 2, with an 82% positive predictive value (ie, true number of those referred); 6.9% were referred for a complete eye examination and treatment. All "referred" interpreted images for children younger than 48 months who were then followed up and treated for more than 2 years were reviewed to determine whether treatment was successful. RESULTS: Of 411 "positive" screening photos from children younger than 4 years, 94 patients had more than 2 years follow-up. The 36 children photoscreened before age 2 years had a mean treated visual acuity of 0.17 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR), which was significantly better than that of 58 children screened between ages 25 and 48 months (mean, 0.26 logMAR). Despite similar levels of amblyogenic risk factors, the proportion of children failing to reach a visual acuity of 20/40 was significantly less among those screened before age 2 years (5%) than in those screened from ages older than 2.0 years and younger than 4.0 years (17%). CONCLUSION: Very early photoscreening yields better visual outcomes in amblyopia treatment compared with later photoscreening in preschool-aged children.

Pediatric eye/vision screening. Referral criteria for the pedia vision plus optix s 04 photoscreener compared to visual acuity and digital photoscreening. Kindergarten computer photoscreening.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Carefully interpreted photoscreen programs yield high predictive value and favorable sensitivity for amblyopia in pre-school children, but most require a long learning curve. The new PediaVision photoscreener appears to offer advantages and is evaluated in caparison with other established screening methods. METHODS: The Plus Optix S04 (PediaVision) computer-interpreted, infrared photoscreener was compared to digital physician-interpreted (Gateway DV-S20) photoscreening and patched Surround HOTV acuity testing in Kindergarten students. RESULTS: The estimated sensitivity and predictive value and speed of the objective photoscreeners exceeded visual acuity testing. The PediaVision photoscreener, in addition, allowed a practical range of referral refractive criteria to be determined and utilized. CONCLUSION: The PlusOptix allows user-chosen, age-related, referral criteria and a quick, child friendly, photoscreening technique that should be ideal for many Kindergarten and preschool eye/vision screening programs.

A comparison of patched HOTV visual acuity and photoscreening.

Early detection of significant vision problems in children is a high priority for pediatricians and school nurses. Routine vision screening is a necessary part of that detection and has traditionally involved acuity charts. However, photoscreening in which "red eye" is elicited to show whether each eye is focusing may outperform routine acuity testing in pediatric offices and schools. This study compares portable acuity testing with photoscreening of preschoolers, kindergarteners, and 1st-graders in 21 elementary schools. School nurses performed enhanced patched acuity testing and two types of photoscreening in a portable tent. Nearly 1,700 children were screened during spring semester 2004, and 14% had confirmatory exams by community eye care professionals. The results indicate that one form of photoscreening using a Gateway DV-S20 digital camera is significantly more sensitive to children with significant vision problems, as well as being the most cost effective (85% specificity and only $0.11 per child). This suggests that the adaptation of photoscreening into a routine vision screening protocol would be beneficial for efficiently detecting vision problems that could lead to amblyopia.