Eye Health Awareness and School-Based Screening in Saudi Schools: A Systematic Literature Review

Vision impairments are harder to diagnose among children, even though detection in childhood offers the biggest window for arresting potentially irreversible impacts on children's socioemotional and educational performance.

This study sought to determine the prevalence of vision impairments in school-going children in Saudi Arabia and gap between the knowledge of visual impairments in school-going children and parental care-seeking practices relating to the effectiveness of school-based eye health screening programs, implementation challenges, and best practices.

The study uses a systematic review and meta-analysis conducted in December 2024 to January 2025.

The present study analyzed primary 35 studies (n = 30,277). While estimates varied materially across regions and demographics, the most prevalent eye conditions affected school-going children were (un)corrected refractive errors and amblyopia. The prevalence of refractive errors, hyperopia, myopia, and astigmatism was 27.43% [18.14,39.20], 13.01% [4.00,33.00], 8.59% [3.53,19.42], and 15.35% [4.97,38.62], respectively. Amblyopia and strabismus affected 0.07 [0.04, 0.11] and 0.05[0.01,0.18] of the population, respectively. Even so, only 23.87% [10.91,44.54] of children already had glasses or contact lenses, despite more than 61.74, 95% [46.78, 74.77] of parents being open to children having glasses/lenses. Routine screening was estimated at in 38.85%, CI [28.99, 49.71.79]. Gerental awareness about eye health and specific vision impairments is inadequate, inconsistent, and broadly varied. School-based screening is equally basic or need to be officially established.

Children's immature ocular system offers good opportunities for intervening before reduced (or loss of) vision can materially affect quality of life, and education-work-life opportunities. With near universal primary school enrolment and continual engagements between children and education practitioners, schools offer an ideal institutional framework for early vision screening and intervention.