title: Neglect of childhood strabismus: Keelung Ann-Lo Community ocular survey 1993-1995.
abstract: Strabismus is a major cause of amblyopia. Parents not aware of the adverse outcome of untreated strabismus is thought to be a major reason of their affected child not being discovered earlier. An ocular survey was therefore conducted to examine the relative neglect of strabismus by the public, using myopia as a reference eye disorder. Specific objectives included estimating the prevalence of these ocular diseases, comparing the self-reported rate to the test-based rate, and investigating how much parents knew about these ocular diseases. Between 1993 and 1995, 862 elementary students in the first, third, and sixth grade at Keelung Ann-Lo Community were screened. The prevalence of manifest strabismus was 1.62% (95% CI = 1.19% approximately 2.05%). Of those with strabismus, three (21.4%) knew that they had strabismus. Neither the prevalence nor the self-known proportion of strabismus changed substantially with school grade, suggesting that the majority of strabismus afflicted children remain unrecognized during their elementary school years. The amblyopia proportion in those with tropia was 42.9% and reduced to 21.5% after abnormal refractive error was excluded. Of six knowledge statements about each ocular disorder, parents answered 2.13 (SD = 1.40) strabismus statements correctly, which was significantly less than their response on myopia statements (4.32 with SD = 1.24) (p < .0001). Onset age of strabismus was the question answered least correctly, implying that parents are not aware of the timing of treating strabismus. Our findings suggest that childhood strabismus was neglected by the public before the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI). Should a similar study continued to be conducted in the future, the efficacy of NHI in the early recognition and treatment on childhood strabismus can be evaluated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Chang Gung College of Medicine and Technology, Kweisan, Taoyuan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: See
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Ku
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Shieh
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009216:Myopia / Q000453:epidemiology; D009313:National Health Programs; D015995:Prevalence; D013285:Strabismus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors