Back to Homepage
Search
Advanced Search
EW WEEK No. 7
· Senate votes to further delay 21% Medicare payment cut until Oct. 1
· FDA approves Tecnis Multifocal
· Proposed bill in Colorado would increase regulation of surgical techs
· Drug therapy for Stargardt’s receives orphan status
· Carl Zeiss Vision, Gunnar Optiks form partnership
· Study: Antidepressants linked to increased risk of cataracts
· First femtosecond laser cataract surgeries performed in U.S.
· Campaign profiles “Day in the Life with Glaucoma”
· Santen, Bausch + Lomb announce management changes

View this Issue

Get the Feed [Valid RSS]

Get the E-mail

Monthly Poll

Do you believe refractive volume will rebound during 2010?

Yes
No



View Poll Results
Resources

Ophthalmologists

Practice Managers

Patient Education

EyeSpaceMD

IOL Calculator
Click to Visit
 • Print Article

  OPHTHALMOLOGY NEWS  

Routine screening for urban preschoolers a necessity


 

 

 

Vision problems, though still rare among urban preschoolers, may be more common than originally thought, according to a study conducted at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
Published in the April issue of Ophthalmology, the comprehensive eye disease study of this subset of young children in Baltimore also found that a small group of children with easily treatable vision problems go untreated, while others get unnecessary treatments.
Lead investigator David Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and fellow researchers wrote that 5% of the nearly 2,300 Baltimore area children who were followed in the study had refractive errors that required treatment. Only 1% of them, however, were actually treated, according to a press release.
Further, the researchers found that out of 29 children who had a prescription for eyeglasses before entering the study, more than one-third didn’t need eyeglasses.
The study also showed that 1 in 20 children studied had easily treatable problems. As such, the researchers suggested that pediatricians routinely screen their patients during physicals and parents should insist on screening by age 4.
“The good news is that serious eye disease in preschoolers appears to be uncommon, but the bad news is that we’re missing kids who need treatment and treating some children who don’t need it,” Michael X. Repka, M.D., deputy director of ophthalmology, Hopkins Children’s Center, said in the press release.
Additionally, contrary to previous research suggesting that most infants outgrow their farsightedness in the first few years of life, the study found few Baltimore children outgrew it during their preschool years, making early diagnosis and treatment critical, Dr. Friedman said in the press release.

Source: http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/
serious-vision-problems-in-urban-preschoolers-rare.aspx
Reported by: EyeWorld News Services







ASCRS
Copyright © 1997-2010 EyeWorld News Service
This site is optimized for 1024 X 768 Resolution


Visit EyeWorld.mobi for a PDA optimized experience