Child development and refractive errors in preschool children.

PURPOSE: Many parents are concerned about their child's development. The purpose of this study is to determine whether parental concerns about overall development are associated with significant refractive errors among urban preschool children. METHODS: A cross-sectional population-based study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of ocular disorders in white and African American children aged 6 through 71 months in Baltimore, Maryland. A comprehensive eye examination with cycloplegic refraction was performed. Parental concerns about development were measured with the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status screening tool. Of 2546 eligible children 2381 (93.5%), completed the refraction and the parental interview. RESULTS: Parental concerns about development were present in 510 of the 2381 children evaluated [21.4%; 95% confidence intervals (CI): 9.8 to 23.1]. The adjusted odds ratios [OR] of parental concerns with hyperopia [≥3.00 diopters (D)] was 1.26 (95% CI: 0.90 to 1.74), with myopia (≥1.00 D) was 1.29 (95% CI: 0.83 to 2.03), with astigmatism (≥1.50 D) was 1.44 (95% CI: 1.08 to 1.93) irrespective of the type of astigmatism, and with anisometropia (≥2.00 D) was 2.61 (95% CI: 1.07 to 6.34). The odds of parental concerns about development significantly increased in children older than 36 months with hyperopia ≥3.00 D, astigmatism ≥1.50 D, or anisometropia ≥2.00 D. CONCLUSIONS: Parental concerns about general developmental problems were associated with some types of refractive error, astigmatism ≥1.50 D and anisometropia ≥2.00 D, in children aged 6 to 71 months. Parental concerns were also more likely in children older than 36 months with hypermetropia, astigmatism, or anisometropia. Parental concerns were not associated with myopia. Because of the potential consequences of uncorrected refractive errors, children whose parents have expressed concerns regarding development should be referred for an eye examination with cycloplegic refraction to rule out significant refractive errors.

Prevalence of amblyopia and strabismus in white and African American children aged 6 through 71 months the Baltimore Pediatric Eye Disease Study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the age-specific prevalence of strabismus in white and African American children aged 6 through 71 months and of amblyopia in white and African American children aged 30 through 71 months. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, population-based study. PARTICIPANTS: White and African American children aged 6 through 71 months in Baltimore, MD, United States. Among 4132 children identified, 3990 eligible children (97%) were enrolled and 2546 children (62%) were examined. METHODS: Parents or guardians of eligible participants underwent an in-home interview and were scheduled for a detailed eye examination, including optotype visual acuity and measurement of ocular deviations. Strabismus was defined as a heterotropia at near or distance fixation. Amblyopia was assessed in those children aged 30 through 71 months who were able to perform optotype testing at 3 meters. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The proportions of children aged 6 through 71 months with strabismus and of children aged 30 through 71 months with amblyopia. RESULTS: Manifest strabismus was found in 3.3% of white and 2.1% of African American children (relative prevalence [RP], 1.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.97-2.66). Esotropia and exotropia each accounted for close to half of all strabismus in both groups. Only 1 case of strabismus was found among 84 white children 6 through 11 months of age. Rates were higher in children 60 through 71 months of age (5.8% for whites and 2.9% for African Americans [RP, 2.05; 95% CI, 0.79-5.27]). Amblyopia was present in 12 (1.8%) white and 7 (0.8%) African American children (RP, 2.23; 95% CI, 0.88-5.62). Only 1 child had bilateral amblyopia. CONCLUSIONS: Manifest strabismus affected 1 in 30 white and 1 in 47 African American preschool-aged children. The prevalence of amblyopia was <2% in both whites and African Americans. National population projections suggest that there are approximately 677,000 cases of manifest strabismus among children 6 through 71 months of age and 271 000 cases of amblyopia among children 30 through 71 months of age in the United States.

Lack of concordance between fixation preference and HOTV optotype visual acuity in preschool children: the Baltimore Pediatric Eye Disease Study.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the results of fixation preference testing and standardized visual acuity testing in white and black children aged 30 through 71 months. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: The Baltimore Pediatric Eye Disease Study is a population-based evaluation of the prevalence of vision disorders in children aged 6 through 71 months in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. A total 1714 children 30 through 71 months of age were eligible for inclusion in this report, with 1435 (83.7%) testable by both fixation preference and Amblyopia Treatment Study (ATS) visual acuity testing protocol. METHODS: The vision of all children 30 through 71 months of age was tested using both the ATS visual acuity testing protocol (using single HOTV symbols with surround bars) and fixation preference testing (FPT). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The ability of fixation preference testing to identify children with clinically important interocular differences (IOD) in visual acuity (i.e., two or more logarithm of minimum angle of resolution units of difference or more). RESULTS: Fifty-three children had 2 or more lines of IOD in visual acuity. Seven of them were graded as having momentary or no fixation (sensitivity = 13.2%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 5.3-27.2]), whereas 45 were graded as normal by FPT. In all 7 of the cases of poor FPT, the better-seeing eye was preferred. Low sensitivity and high specificity for detecting an IOD of 2 lines or more with FPT were seen for both white (33.3% sensitivity; 95% CI, 9.5-57.2; 99.6% specificity; 95% CI, 98.7-100) and black (6.5% sensitivity; 95% CI, 0.6, 23.2; 99.3% specificity; 95% CI, 98.3-99.8) children. When assessing FPT performance for 3 or more lines of IOD, only 5 of the 20 children (sensitivity, 25%; 95% CI, 6.0-44.0) had FPT grades of momentary or no fixation. CONCLUSIONS: Fixation preference testing, when used as part of a population-based research project, does not identify accurately preschool children with 2 lines or more of IOD in presenting visual acuity. The clinical value of this test is poor and its use for diagnosis and monitoring interventions should be reconsidered.

Evaluation of the traveling vision examiner program in the submacular surgery trials pilot study.

PURPOSE: To describe methods and results and to assess the value of a Traveling Vision Examiner (TVE) Program designed to provide masked vision measurements by expert vision examiners who were independent of, and traveled to, local clinical centers. METHODS: The Submacular Surgery Trials (SST) Pilot Study was conducted to refine the design and methods for a set of multicenter, randomized clinical trials to evaluate submacular surgery in patients with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or ocular histoplasmosis (OHS), or idiopathic CNV in which the primary study outcome would be change in 2-year best-corrected vision from baseline. As part of the SST Pilot Study, the feasibility and value of a TVE Program was assessed. The goal of the program was to obtain unbiased vision measurements, according to a standard protocol, of best-corrected visual acuity, reading speed, and contrast threshold, of each patient at 2 and 4 years after enrollment. RESULTS: Eighty-three visits by TVEs were made to 16 centers participating in the SST Pilot Study; 239 patients had at least one masked vision examination. Comparison of pairs of vision measurements of the traveling vision examiners and local vision examiners for 71 patients made on the same day showed good agreement overall (intraclass correlation coefficient > or = 0.81). CONCLUSIONS: The proposed TVE Program was judged to be a feasible and useful method of providing standardized, unbiased, masked vision measurements. This approach was incorporated into the larger clinical trials conducted by the SST Research Group.