title: School-entry vision screening in the United Kingdom: practical aspects and outcomes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe and assess an orthoptist-led vision screening service for school-entry (reception class) children, and report outcomes from one healthcare trust in the UK.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 3721 children (aged 4-5 years) in reception class primary school (155 state, 3 private) underwent orthoptist-conducted vision screening. Children who failed to meet the screening criteria were referred to hospital-based eye services for re-testing and final diagnosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The screening take-up rate was 96.41%; the remaining 3.59% refused/failed to consent to screening. The screening capture rate of participating children was 99.7%. A total of 11.14% of screened children failed to meet the screening criteria and were referred elsewhere; no abnormalities were found in 14% (false referral rate) of these children. Of the referred children, 53% had refractive errors requiring glasses and 42% had squints. The estimated percentages of common visual problems in screened children were 9.15% for refractive error and 3.81% for squint.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An orthoptist-led, time-of-school-entry vision screening service is ideal for successful childhood vision screening and is, thus, a valuable source of information regarding the prevalence of common visual problems among children.
authors.affiliation: Eye Department, Chesterfield Royal Hospital , Chesterfield, Derbyshire , UK.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Toufeeq
authors.forename: Alison J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Oram
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D015995:Prevalence; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012572:School Health Services; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D015351:Vision Screening / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards
keywords: Children; orthoptist; school; screening; vision