A survey of visual impairment in children attending the Royal Blind School, Edinburgh using the WHO childhood visual impairment database

Alagaratnam, Joseph; Sharma, Tarun; Lim, Chung Sim; Fleck, Brian

doi:10.1038/sj.eye.6700149

Cited by 38 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Optic atrophy (11%) was the most common cause of impairment in the perinatal group. Our results show a small number of children (6%) with cortical visual impairment (CVI) compared to other studies (Alagaratnam et al, 2002). These results may be due to a significant number of our children not registered compared to only children on the SI/SSI register by Alagaratnam et al (2002).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 79%

An overview of a UK paediatric visual impaired population and low vision aid provision

Theodorou

Shipman

2013

British Journal of Visual Impairment

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A retrospective study was carried out to evaluate the paediatric visual impaired population attending the Low Vision Clinic at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, over a period of 14 years. Data were collected and analysed for children less than 17 years for prevalence, demographics, registration status, aetiologies, and types of low vision aids issued. The total number of children identified was 204. Of these, 19 percent of the children were registered blind, 45 percent were registered partially sighted, and 36 percent were not registered. The four diagnostic groups were genetic (29%), prenatal (36%), perinatal (23%), and childhood (12%). Describing local characteristics of paediatric visual impairment is a useful measure of current low vision service provision. This information can further inform educational, social, and health needs for the visually impaired children to ensure adequate service provision.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 79%

An overview of a UK paediatric visual impaired population and low vision aid provision

Theodorou

Shipman

2013

British Journal of Visual Impairment

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“…in Edinburg 14 in which 81% of the study population had blindness or were severely visually impaired. Kello, et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causes of blindness and visual impairment at the school for the blind Owo, Nigeria

Omolase¹,

Aina²,

Omolase³

et al. 2011

Ann. Ibadan Postgrad. Med.

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Aim: This study was designed to determine the causes of blindness amongst the pupils of the School for the blind ,Owo and also identify treatable causes of blindness in the study population.Methodology: This study was conducted between November and December,2007 at the School for the blind, Owo. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Ethical Committee of Federal Medical Centre, Owo prior to carrying out this study. Sixty two pupils of the School for the blind and blind students in Owo High school were enrolled in this study. The subjects were interviewed and examined by the authors with the aid of WHO’S recording form for blindness and visual impairment in children. The data obtained with the study instrument was collated and analyzed with SPSS 12.0.1.Results: Majority of the subjects: 55 (88.7%) were blind while the remaining 7 (11.3%) had low vision. Lens ranked highest amongst the anatomical sites of visual loss accounting for 24.2%,followed by retina (14.5%),optic nerve (12.9%) and glaucoma (12.9%).The main aetiological factors were intrauterine (37.1%) and hereditary factors (21%). The commonest single diagnosis was cataract (21%) followed by glaucoma (12.9%). Twenty seven respondents (43.6%) had treatable causes of blindness.Conclusion: The lens ranked highest amongst the anatomical sites of blindness and visual impairment. The main aetiological factors were intrauterine and hereditary factors. The commonest single diagnosis was cataract. Less than half of the respondents had treatable causes of blindness and visual impairment.

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“…Examination of children in SpEdu, with classification of causes using the WHO system, has been widely used to obtain data on causes, the advantage being that a relatively large number of blind children can be examined in a short period of time and at low cost. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] However, data from these blind school studies are likely to be biased for the following reasons: some causes of blindness are associated with high mortality rates (eg, measles, vitamin A deficiency, meningitis, congenital rubella) and only the survivors would be in school; cultural attitudes may make parents reluctant to acknowledge that they have a disabled child, and the child remains unidentified; in some cultures blind children provide an income for the family from begging; children with multiple impairments, and pre-school age children usually cannot be catered for in special education; and, lastly, most schools are in urban areas and parents in rural areas may be reluctant to send their child far away. 26 Some data are available from the Nordic countries which maintain registers of the blind which, due to their small populations, are likely to be reliable, certainly in terms of causespecific incidence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The key informant method: a novel means of ascertaining blind children in Bangladesh

Muhit

Shah

Gilbert

et al. 2007

British Journal of Ophthalmology

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Background: Most information on the causes of blindness has come from examining children in special education. To obtain a more representative population-based sample of children, a novel method was developed for ascertaining severe visually impaired (SVI) or blind (BL) children by training local volunteers to act as key informants (KIs). Objective: To compare the demography and cause of blindness in children recruited by KIs with other ascertainment methods. Method: Children with SVI/BL were recruited in all 64 districts of Bangladesh. Three sources for case ascertainment were utilised: schools for the blind (SpEdu), community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programmes and KIs. All data were recorded using the standard WHO/PBL Eye Examination Record. Results: 1935 children were recruited. Approximately 800 KIs were trained. The majority of the children were recruited by the KIs (64.3%). Children recruited by KIs were more likely to be female (odds ratio (OR) 1.6, p,0.001), of pre-school age (OR 14.1, p,0.001), from rural areas (OR 5.9, p,0.001), be multiply impaired (OR 3.1, p = 0.005) and be suffering from treatable eye diseases (OR 1.3, p = 0.005) when compared with those in SpEdu. Overall a child with an avoidable causes of SVI/BL had 40% (adjusted CI 1.1 to 1.7, p = 0.015) and 30% (CI 1.0 to 1.7, p = 0.033) higher odds of being ascertained using the KIs compared with SpEdu and CBR methods, respectively. Conclusion: Using this innovative approach has resulted in one of the largest studies of SVI/BL children to date. The findings indicate that KIs can recruit large numbers of children quickly, and that the children they recruit are more likely to be representative of all blind children in the community.

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A survey of visual impairment in children attending the Royal Blind School, Edinburgh using the WHO childhood visual impairment database

Cited by 38 publications

References 21 publications

An overview of a UK paediatric visual impaired population and low vision aid provision

An overview of a UK paediatric visual impaired population and low vision aid provision

Causes of blindness and visual impairment at the school for the blind Owo, Nigeria

The key informant method: a novel means of ascertaining blind children in Bangladesh

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