Research

Door-to-door Screening as a New Model Augmenting School Eye Screening: Reaching Out to School Age Children in the Midst of a Pandemic

Between September 2020 and March 2021, a study conducted door-to-door eye screenings for children aged 5 to 18 in a Delhi urban slum. Among the 32,857 screened children, 55% were boys, and only 2.8% had prior eye exams. About 5.5% were referred for further evaluation, with a 72% compliance rate for those with poor vision compared to 38% for those with ocular issues. Compliance was also higher among older children and girls. The study identified 3.9% with refractive errors (RE) and 2.5% with uncorrected RE, more prevalent in girls and older children. Among referred children, 85% received confirmed diagnoses for RE or other ocular issues, demonstrating a high positive predictive value (PPV) of around 85% for the door-to-door screening model. The study suggests this model's effectiveness, especially during school closures due to COVID-19, and recommends its use as a supplement to school screenings in areas with low enrollment and high absenteeism. Strengths include large-scale screenings and efficient teams, while limitations involve sampling convenience and non-cycloplegic vision screening, with the model being particularly valuable during the pandemic.

Publication date

September 19, 2022

Publication

Ophthalmic Epidemiology

Authors

Shalinder Sabherwala, Ishaana Sood, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Atanu Majumdar, Birendra Pratap Singh, Shantanu DasGupta, and Suma Ganesh
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