Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency of conventional screening and of the Spot™ Vision Screener (SVS)-based screening in detecting potential cases of amblyopia during the Visual examination in Three-Year-Old Health Screening Program (VTYOS), that need to be referred for comprehensive examination.
Study Design
Population-based cross-sectional study
Methods
This study introduced the SVS-based test to the VTYOS (which includes primary, secondary, and comprehensive examinations) of Sagae, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Children aged 3 years 6 months scheduled to undergo the secondary examination were subjected to both the SVS-based (evaluation of refractive error and eye alignment) and conventional screening test (questionnaire and visual acuity evaluation). Success rates, proportion of children who needed a comprehensive examination, rates of actual comprehensive examinations, and positive predictive value were determined and compared between conventional screening and SVS-based screening.
Results
There were 294 participants; the rate of success of SVS-based screening (99.7%) was higher than conventional screening (89.5%, p < 0.01). The proportion of participants found to need a comprehensive examination according to SVS-based findings (7.5%) was lower than that according to conventional screening-based findings (23.5%, p < 0.01). The positive predictive value of the SVS-based screening test (75.0%) was higher than that of the conventional screening test (31.6%, p < 0.01). SVS-based screening detected 2 cases of amblyopia in 225 cases that passed conventional screening.
Conclusion
The VTYOS should ideally add SVS-based screening to conventional screening.
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Acknowledgements
This study received a grant from Pleotropic research of effective health checkups of infants and toddlers, based on the epidemiology of illness [17gk0110008h0003] and Yamagata Medical Association. In addition, we thank Sagae-shi Yamagata and Yamagata Ophthalmologist Association for cooperating heartily with this study. We would like to thank Editage (https://www.editage.com) for English language editing.
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S. Hayashi, Honorarium for Lecturing, Advisory Board fee (Welch Allyn); I. Suzuki, None; A. Inamura, None; Y. Iino, None; K. Nishituka, Honorarium for Lecturing (Santen, RE Medical, ZEISS, Alcon, Novartis, Kowa, Johnson & Johnson, Senju, Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho, HOYA); S. Nishina, None; H. Yamashita, Grant (Senju, Alcon, Trustmedical, Atsuzawa, AMO), Grant, Honorarium for Lecturing (Santen), Grant, Honorarium for Chair, Advisory Board fee (Novartis).
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Corresponding Author: Shion Hayashi
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Hayashi, S., Suzuki, I., Inamura, A. et al. Effectiveness of the Spot Vision Screener in screening 3-year-old children with potential amblyopia in Japan. Jpn J Ophthalmol 65, 537–545 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10384-021-00823-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10384-021-00823-x