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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

L.'erin Leigh-Anne Harmon, MPH, Edwin C. Marshall, OD, MPH, and Richard E. Meetz, OD, MS. School of Optometry, Indiana University, 800 East Atwater Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405, 812-855-6682, marshall@indiana.edu

Vision impairment is a significant public health problem, and refractive errors represent a highly chronic etiologic condition among school age children. Uncorrected refractive errors can lead to educational difficulties, social maladjustment, and lost productivity. Healthy People 2010 and APHA policy call for increased efforts to reduce vision impairment due to uncorrected refractive errors in children. National Public Health Week's 2006 theme of “Designing Healthy Communities: Raising Healthy Kids” emphasizes the importance of children growing up healthy, a concept that encompasses the avoidance of uncorrected vision problems. Since 1988, Indiana law requires each public, elementary (K-12) school in Indiana to conduct annual vision tests of all children in kindergarten and first, third and eighth grades. Although schools are required to submit the results to the Indiana State Department of Health, minimal research has been conducted to assess the validity of this state intervention. We analyze five years of clinical data from over 1500 school-generated reports of kindergarten, first, third, and eighth grade students screened, referred and receiving treatment during the academic years of 2000-01 to 2004-05, and compare the results of the mandated vision screening against 1985 pre-mandated state surveillance data and national norms. Through census track data, we determine if socioeconomic and/or the geographic referral rate disparities exist between schools, and estimate the impact of such disparities on the education and productive future of affected students. Our analysis reveals the assets and shortcomings of school vision screenings as a state imposed intervention and provides a foundation for more intensive intervention.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Recognize the importance of refractive errors as a public health problem.
• Assess the benefit of mandated vision testing for school children.
• Evaluate the presence of socio-economic and/or geographic disparities in vision status of school children. 4.Describe the impact of vision health disparities on the education and productive future of affected students.

Keywords: Vision Care, Children and Adolescents

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation