Related Experiment Videos
A systematic review of vision screening tests for the detection of amblyopia
A R Kemper1, P A Margolis, S M Downs
1Children's Primary Care Research Group, Department of Pediatrics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7225, USA. akemper@med.unc.edu
Objective:
To review the test characteristics and the quality of evidence regarding available screening tests for the detection of amblyopia in preschool-aged children to help primary care practitioners select a screening strategy.
Design:
Systematic review of published studies.
Data Sources:
The MEDLINE database was searched from 1966 through January 1999 using a broad and inclusive strategy. A total of 9551 citations were identified.
Study Selection:
All studies that compared the results of commercially available screening tests in preschool-aged children to ophthalmologic examination.
Data Extraction:
The setting of the study, the age of the population, the type of screening test, criteria for a positive screen, criteria for the ophthalmologic examination, test characteristics, and measures of reliability were abstracted by 2 reviewers for each selected study.
Data Synthesis:
Four eligible articles were identified that studied the test characteristics of 3 screening tests. None of these studies were performed in a primary care setting. Each study used different criteria for failure of the ophthalmologic examination. None of the studies measured observer or test reliability.
Conclusions:
Few high-quality data exist regarding the performance of preschool vision screening. Important future work should include the development of a consensus gold standard ophthalmologic examination and evaluation of screening tests in the primary care setting.