Compliance With the Recommendation for a Follow-up Ophthalmology Consultation

Abstract

[Purpose] Visual acuity (VA) tests for children aged 3 years and older are conducted every year at all licensed nursery schools in Niigata City. However, roughly 30% of the children advised to receive an ophthalmology consultation do not adhere to the recommendation. We reviewed the Niigata City health statistics for nursery school children with a focus on the children who had failed to comply with the advice.

[Subjects and Methods] From the Niigata City health statistics for nursery school children for the 8 years from 2008 to 2015, we retrospectively reviewed their VA test results. The number of the children who had received VA tests and the percentage of the children who did not follow the advice for an ophthalmology consultation were investigated for the various wards of the city.

[Results] The total number of the children who had received VA tests increased slightly over the 8 years. The number of the children who were advised for an ophthalmology consultation was the highest in 2013. The percentage of the children who did not follow the advice fluctuated between 27.3% and 38.2% over the 8 years. No clear tendency was seen between the number of the subject children in the ward and the percentage of the children who did not follow the advice. The percentage of the children who did not follow the advice ranged from 0% to over 60%, which varied among the nursery schools.

[Conclusion] The percentage of the children who did not follow the advice did not correspond to the number of the children who were given the advice. In the years with a lower percentage, training classes for VA tests were held for care givers at the nursery schools. We therefore considered that further promotion of such vision awareness campaign may lead to a decrease in the percentage of the children who do not follow the advice for an ophthalmology consultation and an increase in preschool detection of amblyopia.