Ophthalmic screening of school children in Ankara

Ophthalmic screening was done on 23,810 children visited at schools in different regions of Ankara. Children with below normal visual acuity were invited to the outpatient department and had a full routine ocular examination. Thirty-nine nursery and primary schools were selected, ten of them private, eleven average state schools, seven good state schools and eleven village schools. Among the 23,810 children, 3095 (13%) had various pathology; 1516 were girls, 1579 boys. Refractive errors were found in 85% of the children (2630). This equals 11% of the total screened population. Refractive errors were myopia 32%, hypermetropia 21%, astigmatism 47%. Strabismic children were 2.5%, and amblyopia was found in 1.1%. The purpose of the study was to assess the place of an ocular screening program in primary school children and to discuss the differences encountered in different urban areas.