Ophthalmologic screening in 510 students of public schools: development of a comprehensive social project

Abstract Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of visually impaired children at screening in three public schools in Aracaju-SE, to estimate the distribution of refractive errors and to use the data to develop a more comprehensive social project in all public schools of town. Methods: Cross-sectional study with visual acuity (VA) measurement at screening. Age, gender, VA, frequency of the main refractive errors, spherical equivalent and cylinder of those children with VA lower than or equal to 0.7 in any eye, difference greater than 0.2 between the eyes, signs of eye diseases or if they already wore glasses. Results: A total of 510 children were evaluated in 3 schools. Mean age was 9.1 ± 1.6 years. Males were 50.4%. Of the 154 children (30%) who required a more detailed examination, 97 went to the office. Of these, 51 had a prescription of glasses. Myopes accounted for 44.1% of the eyes, hypermetropia to 15.6% and astigmatism to 82.3%. Mean age of children with glasses was 9.5 ± 1.7 years. Considering that there are 15 thousand children between the 1st and 3rd years of elementary school, it can be estimated that approximately 30% will require ophthalmological consultation, corresponding to 4500 consultations (2000 to 2500 of these should need glasses). Conclusion: We conclude that approximately one-third of school-age children in this study had visual impairment during screening. After ophthalmological evaluation, glasses were prescribed for just over half. Astigmatism was the most prevalent refractive error in the 3 schools of the study. The data obtained were used for the planning of important social project to be developed by Sergipe's Society of Ophthalmology.