[01] Manal Mohammad Omran, Primary Health Care Services Sector, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, UAE. [02] Waleed Al Faisal, Health Affairs Department, Primary Health Care Services Sector, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, UAE. [03] Hamid Hussein, Health Affairs Department, Primary Health Care Services Sector, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, UAE. [04] Nahed Monsef, Health Affairs Department, Primary Health Care Services Sector, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, UAE. [05] Nusaiba Al Behandy, Health Affairs Department, Primary Health Care Services Sector, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, UAE. [06] Ayesha Altheeb, Health Affairs Department, Primary Health Care Services Sector, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, UAE. [07] Noora Elkouka, Noor Dubai Foundation, Dubai, UAE. [08] Sulafa Fadl Elawad, Health Affairs Department, Primary Health Care Services Sector, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, UAE.

Globally, uncorrected Refractive errors are the main cause of vision impairment in school children aged 4–17 years, and the prevalence of myopia is increasing dramatically. Objective is to identify the prevalence of vision impairment and associated refractive error among schoolchildren in grades 1, 5 and 9. A cross sectional study was carried out on randomly selected sample of 1719 students, age range (6-11 Years old). Three well-trained optometrists have carried out visual assessment. Assessment setting was four private schools in Dubai. Two clinic sets were provided by Noor Dubai Foundation mobile clinic (fully furnished with vision assessment equipment). The schools were visited during the period from Nov 2016 to Feb 2017. A Snellen 6/9 Visual Acuity Card A measuring tape - for measuring 6 meters distance. A torch light - for external eye examination Baseline data formats Referral forms. A kit bag to store all these materials and A poster with information on signs and symptoms of eye ailments and good eye health practices which will be permanently displayed in the schools. If the child was able to say or point out all the four directions of E in the visual acuity chart, the visual acuity was recorded as 6/9. If not, it was recorded as less than 6/9. The assessment reveals that about 96.1% from the total population of students were with normal vision. On the other hand 3.1% had mild myopia (-0.5 to -3.0), 0.7% moderate (-3.00 to -6.00) and only 0.1% had severe myopia (more than -6.0) requiring further medical attention. On assessing for hyperopia, it was noticed that 99.2% students were normal sighted, with 0.4% having mild hyperopia (-0.5 to -3.0), 0.4% moderate hyperopia (-3.00 to -6.00). Astigmatism was also been assessed for and results showed that about 89.6% of the assessed students were normal, 3.8% had simple astigmatism, 4.2% compound astigmatism and 2.3% had mixed astigmatism respectively. Visual impairments among schooling kids in Dubai are remarkably high with severe visual impairments are not uncommon among screened cohort. A childhood visual screening program needs to be developed and implemented at a wider scale, and effective interventions at primary, secondary and tertiary care levels should be recognized as health care system necessity.

Visual Impairment, Population Based Screening, Private Schools, Students, Dubai

[01] CDC. Prevalence of Selected Developmental Disabilities in Children 3-10 Years of Age: the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program, 1991. MMWR, Surveillance Summaries. April 19, 1996 / 45(SS-2); 1-14. [02] CDC. Economic Costs Associated with Mental Retardation, Cerebral Palsy, Hearing Loss, and Vision Impairment --- United States, 2003. MMWR, Weekly. January 30, 2004 / 53(03); 57-59. [03] WHO. Visual impairment and blindness. Fact Sheet N°282. 2004. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/ Accessed on Sunday 05 March 2017. [04] WHO. ASSESSMENT OF THE PREVALENCE OF VISUAL IMPAIRMENT ATTRIBUTABLE TO REFRACTIVE ERROR OR OTHER CAUSES IN SCHOOL CHILDREN. Protocol and Manual of Procedures. November 2007. [05] Simons K. Preschool vision screening: rationale, methodology and outcome. Surv Ophthalmol. 1996;41(1):3–30. [06] Rahi JS, Logan S, Timms C, Russell-Eggitt I, Taylor D. Risk, causes, and outcomes of visual impairment after loss of vision in the non-amblyopic eye: a population-based study. Lancet. 2002;360:597–602. [07] Rahi JS, Cumberland P, Peckham C. Does amblyopia affect educational, health and social outcomes? Findings from the 1958 British birth cohort. BMJ. 2006;332:820–825. [08] Madhu Gupta, Ocular morbidity prevalence among school children in Shimla, Himachal, North India, Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, 57(2), 2009, 133-8. [09] Agarwal LP, School eye health appraisal, Orient Arch Ophth, 4, 1956, 1. [10] V Kalikivayi, Visual impairment in school children in Southern India, Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, 45(2), 1997, 129-34. [11] Garner LF, Kinnear RF, Klinger JD, and McKellar MJ, Prevalence of myopia in school children in Vanuatu, Acta Ophthalmol, 63, 1985, 323-6. [12] He M., Zeng J., Liu Y., Xu J., Pokharel G. P., Ellwein L. B. Refractive error and visual impairment in urban children in southern China. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2004;45:793–799. [13] Zhao J., Pan X., Sui R., Munoz S. R., Sperduto R. D., Ellwein L. B. Refractive Error Study in Children: results from Shunyi District, China. Am J Ophthalmol. 2000;129:427–435. [14] UNESCO_IBE. 6th ed. 2006–2007. World data on education. http://www.ibe.unesco.org/Countries/WDE/2006/index.html [15] Fan D. S., Lam D. S., Lam R. F. Prevalence, incidence, and progression of myopia of school children in Hong Kong. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2004;45:1071–1075. [16] Ahmed I., Mian S., Mudasir S., Andrabi K. I. Prevalence of myopia in children of Srinagar City of Kashmir, India. Int J Health Sci (Qassim) 2008;2:77–81. [17] Al Wadaani F. A., Amin T. T., Ali A., Khan A. R. Prevalence and pattern of refractive errors among primary school children in Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia. Glob J Health Sci. 2012;5:125–134. [18] Chen Z. T., Wang I. J., Liao Y. T., Shih Y. F., Lin L. L. Polymorphisms in steroidogenesis genes, sex steroid levels, and high myopia in the Taiwanese population. Mol Vis. 2011;17:2297–2310. [19] Pan C. W., Ramamurthy D., Saw S. M. Worldwide prevalence and risk factors for myopia. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2012;32:3–16. [20] Rezvan F., Khabazkhoob M., Fotouhi A. Prevalence of refractive errors among school children in Northeastern Iran. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2012;32:25–30. [21] Negrel A. D., Maul E., Pokharel G. P., Zhao J., Ellwein L. B. Refractive Error Study in Children: sampling and measurement methods for a multi-country survey. Am J Ophthalmol. 2000;129:421–426. [22] Varma R., Wang M. Y., Ying-Lai M., Donofrio J., Azen S. P. The prevalence and risk indicators of uncorrected refractive error and unmet refractive need in Latinos: the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2008;49:5264–5273. [23] He M., Xu J., Yin Q., Ellwein L. B. Need and challenges of refractive correction in urban Chinese school children. Optom Vis Sci. 2005;82:229–234. [24] Pi L. H., Chen L., Liu Q. Refractive status and prevalence of refractive errors in suburban school-age children. Int J Med Sci. 2010;2010:342–353. [25] Maul E., Barroso S., Munoz S. R., Sperduto R. D., Ellwein L. B. Refractive Error Study in Children: results from La Florida, Chile. Am J Ophthalmol. 2000;129:445–454. [26] Zhao J., Mao J., Luo R., Li F., Munoz S. R., Ellwein L. B. The progression of refractive error in school-age children: Shunyi district, China. Am J Ophthalmol. 2002;134:735–743. [27] Goh P. P., Abqariyah Y., Pokharel G. P., Ellwein L. B. Refractive error and visual impairment in school age children in Gombak district, Malaysia. Ophthalmology. 2006;34:335–341. [28] Saw S. M., Goh P. P., Cheng A., Shankar A., Tan D. T., Ellwein L. B. Ethnicity-specific prevalences of refractive errors vary in Asian children in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore. Br J Ophthalmol. 2006;90:1230–1235. [29] Vision 2020 e resources. Avalable from: http://www.v2020eresource.org/home/newsletter/SM103 Accessed on Sunday 05 March 2017.