Study: Childhood visual impairment often not reported

Many cases of childhood visual impairment are not reported to statutory blind or partially sighted registers, limiting the utility of these lists for development of services, a recent study concluded.

Using a variety of sources, including hospital-based and community-based pediatricians, N. M. Flanagan, A. J. Jackson and A. E. Hill, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, identified 76 children as having visual impairment, making the childhood prevalence 1.61 per 1,000.

According to their study, published in Child: Care, Health and Development, 32% of the children had a normal pattern of development, 43% had global delays or severe learning difficulty and 21% had an isolated visual impairment.

Nine percent of the children with a visual impairment were classified as totally blind, and 45% were diagnosed with cortical visual impairments.

Additional medical problems were present in 79% of children, of which 33% had cerebral palsy.

The authors noted that only 22% of the children were registered as being blind or partially sighted on official registries.