Diretrizes – Pediatric vision screening in Brazil

Visual impairment is estimated at 0.3 to 1.0 per thousand children in high and low-income countries, respectively. For 2020, 1.44 million children aged 0–14 years were estimated to be blind, and 46.60 million had mild vision impairment. However, most cases of childhood visual impairment are considered preventable or treatable with adequate ophthalmological care.

Uncorrected refractive error is the primary cause of childhood visual impairment in most countries, including Brazil. An Indian study using The Refractive Error Study in Children (RESC) protocols has
shown that refractive error accounts for over 80 % (prevalence of 7.26%) of visual impairment and amblyopia for another 6.4 % (prevalence 0.57 %). In a low–middle-income urban school project in S˜
ao Paulo, Brazil, using the same protocol, refractive error was also the main cause (76.8 %; prevalence of 6.93 %) of visual impairment, followed by amblyopia (11.4 %; prevalence of 1.02 %). Other causes in Brazilian municipalities include retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), congenital cataracts, and glaucoma. A recent study from a Brazilian rehabilitation facility found cerebral visual impairment to be the main cause (27.9 %) of functional low vision (vision effectively used in daily activities), followed by ocular toxoplasmosis (8.2 %), ROP (7.8 %), and congenital cataracts (7.2 %)