Background: Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder. Visual and oculomotor deficits in dyslexic children have been reported.
The purpose of this study was to measure oculomotor parameters and analyze the effect of oculomotor rehabilitation strategies on dyslexia.
Methods: Binocular eye movements were recorded by oculomotor subtype of videonystagmography (VNG) testing on 30 children
with dyslexia and 20 typical reader children (aged 8–12) in both genders. Dyslexic children were diagnosed with DSM-V scale by
experts in reading disorder centers. We studied those children with developmental dyslexia, who had deficits in eye movements recording.
Dyslexic children were divided into 2 groups of case and control. Oculomotor rehabilitation (including fixation, saccade, and
tracking training) was performed in case group for 1 hour, twice weekly for 8 weeks. Before the intervention, results of oculomotor
tests were compared between 3 groups (healthy, case, and control). Then, to analyze the effect of the intervention, results of oculomotor
tests were compared between case and control groups in pre- and post- intervention stage. Data were analyzed by independent and
paired samples t tests, ANOVA, and repeated measures tests in SPSS v. 21.
Results: There were significant differences in oculomotor characteristics of dyslexic children in comparison with those reported in
typical children. Oculomotor rehabilitation intervention had a positive effect on improvement of oculomotor responses and eye movements
in dyslexic children. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference between dyslexic children and non-dyslexic children
in oculomotor skills after the training.
Conclusion: Our results showed the positive effects of oculomotor rehabilitation on eye movements. Primary oculomotor assessment
in dyslexic children and early use of oculomotor rehabilitation combined with other treatments are highly recommended.
Background
Hearing loss is the second most common chronic disease, the diagnosis and treatment of which can be faster through screening. In addition, early interventions will save significant costs for the education and health systems. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of hearing screening for primary school children in Shiraz.
Methods
This cross-sectional economic evaluation of cost-effectiveness was conducted from the perspective of the health system. The study population comprised all seven-year-old children participating in the screening program in Shiraz. The present study dealt only with direct costs. The expected costs and outcomes, as well as the ICER index were estimated using the decision tree model. The study outcomes included averted disability-adjusted life years (DALY) and true identification of hearing loss cases. The robustness of the results was evaluated using the one-way sensitivity analysis. The TreeAge 2020 and Excel 2016 software were also used to analyze the collected data.
Results
The hearing screening data obtained during 6 years (2015–2020) showed that every year, an average of 22,853 children in Shiraz were examined for hearing, of which 260 were true positive (%1.1). The costs of screening and lack of screening were estimated at $30.32 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and $13.75 PPP per child, respectively. The averted DALY due to performing hearing screening was estimated at 7 years for each child. The ICER was positive and equal to $ 0.06 PPP for the identified cases and $ 2.37 PPP per averted DALY. The sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the results.
Conclusions
According to the results, although hearing screening for primary school children had more costs and effectiveness, it was considered cost-effective. Therefore, universal screening with high quality and accuracy is recommended.
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