The Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System leverages new and existing data sources to help patients, health care professionals, researchers and policymakers understand the scope of vision loss and eye disorders in the U.S.
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Many Arizona kids are heading back to school this month, and doctors say when they return to the classroom it’s important to make sure they can see well. About 80 percent of what a child learns at school happens visually. When children have undetected vision problems, said Dr. Amy Davis, a pediatric optometrist, they can miss out on major portions of their education.
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Across the world, researchers have documented that children are developing nearsightedness (myopia) at younger ages. One study found that nearly 30 percent of children ages 11 to 13 have myopia, and more than a third of those children have not received corrective lenses. Researchers found that for every extra hour of outdoor time spent per week, the relative risk of a child developing myopia drops by nearly 15 percent. Read More

Could the persistent gap in reading performance between poor students and wealthier ones be closed if poor students were given eyeglasses? Researchers that found that reading proficiency improved significantly for second and third graders who were given eyeglasses compared with the children who did not need them. Armed with these research findings, Vision for Baltimore, a mobile vision clinic began visiting to schools across Baltimore to provide free screenings and eyeglasses.Read More

The Gift of Sight and Sound Program offers a school-based optometry clinic for children referred to an optometrist, and a school-based dispensing clinic for dispensing prescribed glasses. The program was able to track outcomes for more than 90 percent of the children that were referred for further assessment. Four of every five students who went to these clinics needed and received glasses. Read More

Studies indicate that increasing the time spent outdoors significantly reduces myopia and its progression. For every additional hour of time spent outdoors per week, the odds of developing myopia decrease by 2 percent. Increasing time spent outdoors may be a simple strategy to reduce the risk of children and adolescents developing myopia.Read More

The largest study of childhood eye diseases ever undertaken in the U.S. confirms that that the incidence of childhood myopia among American children has more than doubled over the last 50 years. The rise in screen-related activities, coupled with a decrease in exposure to outdoor light, is damaging children’s vision.
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Researchers have investigated how vision can affect a child’s ongoing learning, with results showing 30 percent of third grade students tested had uncorrected eye problems that could affect academic performances. Children referred at vision screening scored lower on literacy and numeracy tests. Vision screening could thus identify children who may be at risk of underachieving. Read More

Uncorrected farsightedness (hyperopia) in preschool children is associated with significantly worse performance on a test of early literacy. Results of the study, which compared 4- and 5-year-old children with uncorrected hyperopia to children with normal vision, found that children with moderate hyperopia did significantly worse on the Test of Preschool Early Literacy (TOPEL) than peers with normal vision. This study demonstrated that vision related problems that make it harder for children to see things up-close affect grade school readiness. Read More

Researchers have investigated how vision can affect a child’s ongoing learning, with results showing 30 percent of third-grade students tested had uncorrected eye problems that could affect academic performances. Children referred at vision screening scored lower on literacy and numeracy tests. Vision screening could thus identify children who may be at risk of underachieving.