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Scottish Pre-School Vision Screening - First 3 Years of National Data
1Ninewells Hospital, NHS Tayside, GB.
The British and Irish Orthoptic Journal
|October 1, 2020
Summary
The Pre-school Orthoptic Vision Screening (POVS) in Scotland achieved 85.5% coverage, effectively detecting visual problems like amblyopia in young children. The program demonstrated high sensitivity with a true positive rate of 88.9%.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Public Health
- Pediatrics
Background:
- The Scottish government implemented Pre-school Orthoptic Vision Screening (POVS) for early detection of visual issues in children.
- Target conditions include amblyopia, refractive errors, and strabismus.
- This study presents preliminary findings from the first three years of the POVS program.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of the POVS program in Scotland.
- To report on coverage, referral rates, and accuracy of the screening.
- To assess the program's sensitivity in identifying visual problems in pre-school children.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective data collection from Scottish health boards (2013-2016).
- Analysis of screening coverage, referral rates, true positives, and positive predictive values.
- Exclusion of children who opted out (1.8%) or already attended hospital eye services (3.1%).
Main Results:
- Screening covered 167,962 children, with a mean coverage of 85.5% across health boards.
- The mean referral rate was 17.9%.
- High accuracy was observed with a mean true positive rate of 88.9% and a positive predictive value of 86.9%.
Conclusions:
- The POVS program in Scotland demonstrates excellent mean coverage.
- Consistently high true positive rates confirm the program's sensitivity for detecting visual problems.
- The findings support the value of standardized vision screening in pre-school children.
