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Effectiveness of Vision-Screening in Pre-School Populations with Preferential-Looking Cards Used for Assessment of Visual Acuity

Screening the vision of pre-school populations has been suggested as a way to assure early identification of vision problems as well as early intervention, thereby enabling normal development of the visual system and learning process. In a masked investigation, 119 preschool children enrolled in Project Headstart with a mean age of 3.51 years (range 3 to 5 years) had their vision screened using the Modified Clinical Technique (MCT). Monocular visual acuities in this population were determined using preferential-looking (PL) cards. Visual acuity assessment of young children in screening settings is at best a challenge; yet, all 119 children were able to complete monocular acuity assessments on each eye. Acuities for nonreferrals (individuals who passed the screening) were significantly better than for referrals (individuals who failed the screening) at the 0.0167 level using a two-tailed Fisher's Exact Test with the Bonferroni Method for multiple comparisons. The effectivity of the screening technique as determined by phi-coefficient remained highest ( ?=+0.94) with the visual acuity referral criterion set at 6/12 (20/40) or less either eye and/or ≥ a 2-octave difference between the eyes. The resultant referral rate (17.6%) was higher than that predicted by extrapolation from the Orinda Study for this age group (12.3%) but expected because of the different socioeconomic group. PL cards enabled monocular visual acuity measurement on 100% of the children tested and measurably increased the effectiveness of the screening procedure.