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New research · Ophthalmology
Clinical & experimental optometry · 22h
StudyClinical & experimental optometry · 2026

Children's Eye Screening South Australia (CESSA): diagnostic performance of a vision screening programme for 7-9-year-olds.

Cassandra Haines, Nicola S Anstice, Ranjay Chakraborty
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OphthalmologyStudy

17% of screened 7-9-year-olds had a confirmed vision disorder.

Children's Eye Screening South Australia (CESSA): diagnostic performance of a vision screening programme for 7-9-year-olds.

Cassandra Haines … Ranjay Chakraborty
Clinical & experimental optometry · 2026
Background

The Children's Eye Screening South Australia study evaluated the performance of a vision screening protocol for detecting common vision disorders in a school-based sample of children aged 7-9 years, while characterising prevalent vision conditions in this population.

Methods

A total of 159 children from 15 schools underwent school-based screening, including distance and near vision, retinoscopy, photorefraction, stereoacuity, heterophoria and ocular alignment.

n = 159 children
17.0%
Results
17.0%
checking vision found a disorder in about 1 in 6 kids
n = 159 children
More results

Standard distance vision fail criteria (≥0.26 logMAR) demonstrated low sensitivity (33.3%), but improved to 59.3% using > 0.04 logMAR.

Retinoscopy and photorefraction showed high screening test accuracy (AUC, 0.91 and 0.86).

More results

Combining distance vision with photorefraction significantly improved accuracy (AUC, 0.87, p < 0.001), with modest, non-significant gains from adding stereoacuity or heterophoria.

“
Conclusion · 1 of 2

Seventeen percent of a school-based sample of South Australian children aged 7-9 years were identified as having vision disorders, such as refractive errors and amblyopia risk factors, effectively detected using a combination of vision measurement and photorefraction.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

These findings support improved vision surveillance in children in South Australia, which could include an instrument-based vision screening programme with appropriate thresholds.

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