A Prospective Study to Assess the Quality of Preliminary Eye Screening Done on School Children by Teachers in Andhra Pradesh Jyothi Korani 1 , Jachin D Williams 1 , Athira Rose 2 and Rohit Khanna 1 1 Gullapalli Pratibha Rao International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye Care – L V Prasad Eye Institute, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, India 2 Bausch and Lomb School of Optometry - L V Prasad Eye Institute, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, India * Corresponding author: Jyothi Korani MSW, GPR International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye Care, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Kallam Anji Reddy Campus, Banjara Hills Roar # 2, Hyderabad, India, Tel: +91-40-30615619; E-mail: jyothi@lvpei.org Rec date: Jan 24, 2015; Acc date: Mar 30, 2015; Pub date: Apr 03, 2015 Copyright: © 2015 Korani J, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Aim: To assess the quality of vision screening done by trained schoolteachers on schoolchildren. Method: This study was carried out in Greater Hyderabad by selecting 10 schools in 3 different clusters by means of systematic random sampling. Teachers were imparted training for detecting vision defects and important ocular conditions and were permitted to screen the students using a protocol ascribed to them. Students who were screened by teachers were rescreened by optometrist to compare and analyse the outcome of the training imparted. Results: A total of 25 schoolteachers were trained and utilized for screening 600 students in age ranging from 8 to 13 (mean is 10.5 and ±SD is 1.87) girls constituting 55%. The impact of training increased knowledge level to 88%. Similarity found in detection of children with poor visual acuity <6/9 by both ‘the trained teachers and optometrist. Significant eye conditions which required early intervention were detected with the help of signs and symptoms learnt through the training (Kappa statistic=0.95) suggesting an excellent agreement among the teachers and optometrist. Conclusion: The study results suggest that trained teachers can be relied upon for screening children to identify various eye conditions including refractive errors. This study recommends incorporating a module on vision screening in the teachers’ education curriculum and conducting screening in schools on a regular basis. Keywords: Schoolchildren; Schoolteacher; Optometrist; Screening; Assessment; Visual acuity; Refractive errors; Ocular conditions; Visual impairment; Blindness; Childhood blindness Introduction A global initiative was launched by the World Health Organization in 1999 to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020 [1]. Childhood blindness is one of the top priorities in this program as blind children contribute more cumulative blind years than adults who become blind later in life. Approximately, 500,000 children become blind every year and 70 million blind person years are added each year due to childhood blindness [2]. In India alone there are 270,000 blind children i.e. constituting approximately 19.0% of the blind population [3]. Visual disabilities in children including the Childhood Blindness should be addressed through a comprehensive program approach [4]. A recent study examined 6,935 children and estimated that the prevalence of childhood blindness was 0.17% (95% confidence interval 0.09 to 0.30) of which treatable refractive error caused 33.3%, followed by 16.6% preventable causes in which 8.3% due to vitamin A deficiency and 8.3% due to amblyopia after cataract surgery [5]. Such reports reveal that 50% of blindness is avoidable [6]. Most of the children population in India [7] is in rural areas where awareness on the conditions causing avoidable childhood blindness is relatively unknown [8]. Educating parents and teachers with adequate knowledge on these conditions would help in preventing the causes of visual impairment, early detection and early intervention of these conditions. A comprehensive eye health program was conducted for school going children supported by Lions Clubs International and Johnson and Johnson Vision Care Sight for Kids undertaken by L V Prasad Eye Institute and Lions Partner eye facilities in Greater Hyderabad. This program is focused on the children studying in Government and Government aided primary and upper-primary schools in the underserved locations of Greater Hyderabad. In the process of screening, schoolteachers were utilized for detecting eye problems among the children after imparting a concise training. This study wanted to analyse the effectiveness of teachers involvement in detecting children through preliminary screening in the pursuit of examining every child in the school and appropriately referring for addressing each and every eye condition; simple to complex. Henceforth, a qualified optometrist and teachers who were fresh to this kind of program have been utilized in this study. This study reports the effectiveness of teachers training which reduces the time of ophthalmic personnel in early detection and accessibility for up-taking eye care services by children belonging to marginalized sector communities. Methods This study was carried out in 10 schools located in three Mandalas (Mandala is another word for Tehsil, an administrative division of Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education Korani, et al., J Community Med Health Educ 2015, 5:2 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2161-0711.1000342 Research Article Open Access J Community Med Health Educ ISSN:2161-0711 JCMHE, an Open Access Volume 5 • Issue 2 • 1000342