Vision and refraction of school children

Even though prophylactic medical examination of children has been carried out in Denmark since 1947, measurement of visual acuity in young children was not performed systematically until the National Health Service issued instructions making sight testing a major part of the 4 year medical examination. If this has had an effect, it should now be possible to record a fall in the number of school children with amblyopia as a result of anomalies of refraction and strabismus. The present investigation comprises all the children, who attended int the 2nd to 5th classes during the school year 1983/84, in schools in the municipality of Odense. 8769 school medical files were examined and 1216 children selected for supplementary eye examination. The remainder had normal vision without glasses. 1034 of those examined had an anomaly of refraction or reduced vision from other causes. 97% of all the eyes had a visual acuity of 6/6. The frequency of children with unilateral vision ≤6/12, and who did not suffer from eye disease, comprised 1.07%. There were statistically significantly more boys (1.39%) than girls (0.73%) with amblyopia. Thus, there is a fall in the number of amblyopic children in relation to previous Danish investigations. Bilateral reduction in visual acuity ≤6/18 was found in 0.09%; this has not changed to any greater extent during the last decades. Myopia was found in 4.0% of the children between the ages of 7–11 years. compared to previous studies no change was observed in the younger ages and modest rise in the older age groups. The onset of myopia occurred earlier in girls (9–10 years) than in boys (11 years). This may, in part, explain why myopia was seen in 4.4% of the girls and only in 3.6% of the boys. Severe myopia (>/6.0 D) was found in 13 children (18 eyes) corresponding to a frequency of 0.15%.