TY  - JOUR
A1  - Elflein, Heike
A1  - Pokora, Roman
A1  - Müller, Denis F.
A1  - Jahn, Klaus
A1  - Ponto, Katharina
A1  - Pitz, Susanne
A1  - Pfeiffer, Norbert
A1  - Schuster, Alexander K.
A1  - Urschitz, Michael Siegfried
T1  - No benefit of a pediatric screening in discovering reduced visual acuity in children: Experiences from a cross-sectional study in Germany
T2  - International journal of environmental research and public health
N2  - Background: The newly introduced German pediatric screening examination at the end of the third year of life (U7a) incorporates visual function testing in particular; there is no ophthalmic screening during childhood in Germany. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between participation in U7a and visual function at the preschool health examination (PHE) in the sixth year of life. Methods: This study evaluated PHE data from school enrollment years 2009/2010 to 2014/2015 of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Visual acuity (VA) at PHE was assessed with Rodenstock visual acuity test device (tumbling E) wearing glasses if present. The relationship between participation in U7a and VA <0.7 at PHE was calculated for reduced monocular and binocular VA using multiple logistic regression adjusted for potential confounders. Results: Data from 189,704 children (91,041 girls) in 35 out of 36 districts were included. The first children to participate in U7a were enrolled in 2011/2012 school year. In total, 90,339 children (47.6%) had U7a before PHE, while 99,365 (52.4%) had not. VA <0.7 in at least one eye was measured at PHE in 8429 (4.4%) children, and in both eyes in 4345 (2.3%) children. Participation in U7a was not associated with VA <0.7 at PHE (odds ratio 0.99; 95% confidence interval: 0.94–1.04). Conclusions: The proportion of children with VA <0.7 at PHE was high. No beneficial effect of newly introduced German U7a pediatric screening examination was found for reduced VA at PHE.
KW  - amblyopia
KW  - preschool health examination
KW  - pediatric eye screening
Y1  - 2020
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/54285
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-542858
SN  - 1660-4601
SN  - 1661-7827
N1  - This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
VL  - 17
IS  - 10, Art. 3419
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - MDPI AG
CY  - Basel
ER  -