Visual Impairment Screening and Early Interventions among Schooling Kids in Dubai Dubai-UAE-2016

Background: Amblyopia and strabismus can affect normal visual development at a critical period of visual development, resulting in irreversible vision loss.These conditions can reduce quality of life, function, and school performance.Identification of vision problems as early as possible could help identify children who might benefit from early interventions to correct or improve vision.Objectives: To identify children who are visually impaired, children with strabismus and/or amblyopia or at risk of developing them, and other noticeable impairments among healthy looking children. Methodology:A cross sectional study was carried out on randomly selected sample of 316 students, age rang (6-11 Years old) (grade 1 and 5).Visual assessment has been carried out by three well trained and experienced optometrists from Dubai Hospital and primary health care sector services at Dubai health Authority.Assessment setting was (Al Sadiq Private school clinic and two clinics sets by Noor Dubai Mobile clinic already installed in school for two successive days (fully furnished with vision assessment equipments) and optometrists.A Snellen 6/9 Visual Acuity Card A measuring tape -for measuring 6 meters distance A torch light -for external eye examination Baseline data formats Referral forms A kit bag to store all these materials and A poster with information on signs and symptoms of eye ailments and good eye health practices which will be permanently displayed in the schools.If the child was able to say or point out all the four directions of E in the visual acuity chart, the visual acuity was recorded as 6/9.If not, it was recorded as less than 6/9.Results: The study showed that about 38.9% of total sample visually assessed were having error of refraction and about 42.3% of total students with error of refractions wearing glasses while about 16.5% of total students examined were being wearing glasses), the study revealed that the common error of refractions identified among the sample were (myopia (9.8%), hypermetropia (4.9%), astigmatism (43.9%).The study showed that there are number of eye morbidities detected during visual screening like nyestagmous (0.3%), strabismus (0.6%), Cataract (0.3%) and Conjunctivitis 0.3%) and all cases were referred for further intervention.Conclusions: The study concluded that errors of refractions and other eye morbidities are tremendously prevalent among younger age groups of students and significant portion of these case are UN identified and has direct impact on students academic performance as well as other students interests.National wise visual impairment screening and early eye morbidities detection needs to be considered at policy and decision making, and strongly recommended to be listed as one of the mandatory screening for children national wise