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CHICAGO–As many families begin to prepare for a new school year, Prevent Blindness, a nonprofit eye health organization, has declared August as Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month, according to an announcement from the organization. Prevent Blindness and its National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health is offering a variety of free resources for the public, educators, and allied health professionals on children’s vision issues, including web pages, printable fact sheets, videos from experts and patients, and social media graphics in English and Spanish.
“We know that being able to see clearly is a strong predictor of academic success,” said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. “We’ve developed expert-approved resources that are designed to help kids reach their highest potential through healthy vision, for this school year and for life.”
Uncorrected vision problems can impair a child’s development, interfere with learning, and even lead to permanent vision loss, the nonprofit said. According to the Prevent Blindness Children’s Vision Health Map and corresponding report, compiled in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System, vision issues in children are common in the United States. Here are a few data points from the Children’s Vision Health Map and report:
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- One out of every 122 children has permanent vision loss.
- There are 25 percent more girls with vision loss than boys.
- One out of every 45 children in the Medicaid/CHIP health insurance program had an amblyopia or strabismus diagnosis in 2019. This includes one out of every 94 children with amblyopia and one out of every 70 with strabismus.
- Among the community-level indicators included in the Prevent Blindness Children’s Vision Health Map, vision loss is most closely correlated with the prevalence of children in poverty (+55 percent).
- Nearly 4 million children in the Medicaid/CHIP program received at least one pair of covered eyeglasses in 2019.
Prevent Blindness said that it offers free materials on children’s vision issues, including myopia (nearsightedness), amblyopia (lazy eye), strabismus (crossed eyes), retinopathy of prematurity, and the effects of juvenile diabetes on vision. Prevent Blindness has also developed new resources on patching for amblyopia, including video testimonials from children who are patching, and a new Focus on Eye Health Expert Series episode, featuring Sandra S. Block, OD, MEd, MPH, president of the World Council of Optometry, professor emeritus of the Illinois College of Optometry, and emeritus member of the Prevent Blindness board of directors.
Preventing eye injuries is a critical way to prevent vision loss in children. Dedicated resources on safety and eye protection, including contact lenses, sports, UV, screen time and digital devices, and home and toy eye safety are also available from Prevent Blindness.
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The organization said it is working to establish a national approach to children’s vision and continues to advocate for the recently reintroduced Early Detection of Vision Impairments for Children (EDVI) Act, H.R. 2527. The legislation is led by Congressional Vision Caucus co-chairs representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL-12) and Marc A. Veasey (D-TX-33), and was recently co-sponsored by representatives Janelle S. Bynum (D-OR-5), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-2), Melanie A. Stansbury (D-NM-1), and delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC-At Large). The bipartisan legislation, if passed, will establish the first national program specifically aimed at improving children’s vision and eye health and is currently supported by more than 100 state and national organizations. To learn more about the EDVI Act and how to contact your representatives to be a voice for children’s vision, visit the Prevent Blindness Legislative Action Center.
For general information on children’s eye health and safety, click here. For information on the NCCVEH and its variety of programs, including certification in children’s vision screening procedures and state-by-state information on vision screening requirements, click here. Vision care financial assistance resources in English and Spanish may also be found here.
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