Visual Impairment In Children 0 - 18yrs In Central Fiji

Anasaini Cama

Purpose: To compare data from multiple sources with that from Blind schools and Clinics in determining the prevalence for visual impairment in children (0 – 18yrs) in Central Medical Division (CMD) Fiji.

Method: A cross-sectional analysis of data from 3 sources were utilised - existing informal registers for the vision impaired, vision screening programs and key informants with the outcome being the prevalence of vision impairment amongst children, 0 – 18 years within the CMD. The methods followed here were the first of its kind as a search of the literature showed epidemiology figures were obtained from either schools for the blind, hospitals and low vision clinics or the use of key informants. This study used all in addition to vision screening.

Results: 107 vision impaired children were identified in this study with an estimated prevalence of 0.227 per 1,000 children. Commonest anatomical causes of vision loss involved retinal and cortical causes. If data were only collected from the Blind school and Clinics as in previous studies, 50.5% (54/107) of children would have been identified.

Conclusion: This study gave more accurate prevalence figures for vision impairment in children while still being comparable with WHO estimates for higher income countries. Following previous methods would have underestimated the prevalence by ~50%.