Profile of Visual Impairment Among Preschool Children / Jurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Visual impairment among children can be serious without early intervention. This study was conducted to determine prevalence of visual impairment causes among preschool children. Twenty one kindergartens were randomly selected for vision screening. The screening module consist of visual acuity test, cover test, Hirschberg’s test, exsternal ocular asessment and ophthalmoscopy. Preschool children who failed the vision screening were referred for further assessment. Four hundred and seventy nine preschool children with an average age of 5.30 ± 0.69 years old participated in the vision screening program. Of those 43 children who failed the vision screening, 32 (6.7%) children were confirmed to have some form of visual impairment, while 8 children were normal. Three children were excluded from the study because the children did not cooperate for further assessment. The main cause of visual impairment among preschool children was refractive error (5.8%). Other causes were amblyopia (1.3%), strabismus (1.0%) and ocular abnormalities (0.8%). In conclusion early detection of visual impairment through vision screning and early optometric intervention is very important to be conducted among preschool children so that visual impairment can be reduced.