2nd Global Pediatric Ophthalmology Congress

Access to general health and eye care is related to an individual’s socioeconomic status (SES). We aimed to examine the prevalence of oculo-visual disorders in children in Istanbul Turkey, drawn from schools at SES extremes but geographically nearby. Three school-based vision screenings (presenting distance visual acuity, cover test, eye assessment history, color vision, gross stereopsis and non-cycloplegic autorefraction) were conducted on 81% of a potential 1014 primary-school children aged 4-10 years from a government (low SES) and two nearby private (high SES) schools in central Istanbul. Of the 823 children, mean age was 6.7±2.2 years; approximately 10% of all children were referred for a full eye examination (8.2% and 16.3% of private/government schools, respectively). Nearly 65% and 22% in the government/private schools respectively had never been previously examined. Of all children, 94.5% and 86.6% were able to read/identify with each eye the 6/9.5 or the 6/6 line of letters/shapes respectively, 7.9% presented wearing spectacles, 3.8% had impaired color vision, 1.5% had grossly impaired stereo-vision, 1.5% exhibited strabismus, 1.8% were suspected to have amblyopia and 0.5% reduced acuity of likely organic origin. Of the 804 without the latter three conditions, 6.0% were myopic ≤-0.50 DS, 0.6% hyperopic ≥2.00 DS, 7.7% astigmatic ≥1.00 DC and 6.2% anisometropic ≥1.00 DS. The results highlight the different pattern of visual problems associated with lifestyle differences in two populations raised in the same urban locale but drawn from different socioeconomic background and the need for general vision screenings prior to school entry .