Visual impairment and its correction among Pacific youth in Aotearoa: findings from the Pacific Islands Families...

Childhood visual impairment has a life-long impact that, with early access to eyecare, is largely avoidable. We aimed to understand visual impairment and its correction among Pacific youth in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Pacific Islands Families Study is a birth cohort study that tracks an original sample of 1,398 Pacific children born at Middlemore Hospital (Auckland). This analysis focuses on assessed visual acuity (at 9- and 18-years, using 0.3logMAR or 6/12 as the cut-off for visual impairment) and participants' self-reports about accessing eyecare services.

Less than a fifth of children (111/729, 15.2%) and teens (86/457, 18.8%) reported having sought eyecare. The percentage of participants with refractive correction was 3.6% (32/887) at 9-years and 14.3% (66/463) at 18-years. At 9-years, 1.9% of children (16/853) had visual impairment in one eye only, and 0.9% (8/853) had visual impairment impacting both eyes. By 18-years these values increased to 7.9% (36/456) and 4.2% (19/456), respectively. Among those with visual impairment, most children (15/24, 62.5%) and teens (32/55, 58.2%) reported they did not have refractive correction.

Although prevalence of visual impairment is relatively low compared to non-Pacific youth, much of the reported impairment appears to be avoidable with improved eyecare.