Research
grants
Blue Mountains Eye Study
Retinal Vascular Signs
Cataract Surgery & AMD
Sydney Myopia Study
[Sydney Paediatric Eye Disease Study]
In the media
Sydney Paediatric Eye Disease Study
This study aims to provide data that is currently unavailable on the magnitude, causes and risk factors for eye conditions and visual impairment in a sample of around 4,000 Sydney children, aged between 6 months to 6 years.
Screening of young children for vision disorders is not being conducted systematically in Australia because of considerable debate regarding potential benefits. An increasing body of recent evidence, however, indicates that early detection and treatment of these conditions has beneficial outcomes on long-term visual function. Amblyopia (reduced vision from childhood, mostly one eye) may also be a risk factor for subsequent visual loss in the fellow better-seeing eye. Early detection of amblyopia, refractive error and other eye conditions could thus potentially decrease the burden of visual impairment in later life.
Although the educational and health impacts from vision conditions are not known with certainty, accurate prevalence data is an important first step. It will advance knowledge of these conditions and inform debate on the merits or otherwise of screening. It will permit measurement of trends over time and disease incidence, and the investigation of associations between these disorders and risk factors with quality of life in the crucial early childhood years. Existing data indicate that these conditions are frequently unrecognised. To date, however, no large population-based studies have been conducted (in Australia and elsewhere) among young children.
This study complements our current NHMRC grant (Sydney Myopia Study) investigating prevalence, causes and risk factors for refractive error and other eye conditions in a representative sample of schoolchildren aged 6 and 12 years. It also extends and builds on a major new US ‘sister’ project, the Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study (MEPEDS, funded by NIH), which is examining 9,000 children aged 6 months to 6 years.
