Abstract

Background and Aims:
To study parents perceived barriers and determinants for vision and eye screening of preschool children.
Methods:
This survey of parents was held from June to November 2024. Twenty-six closed-ended questions related to barriers like attitude of parents (6), busy (2), distance (1), affordability (1), fear (2), primary eye care provider related (6), pediatric ophthalmology service related (7), and bad experience in the past (1) were asked. The five graded responses were graded as very poor (76%) agreement with perceived barriers.
Results:
Of the 1,404 participants, 469 (33.4%) were fathers. Of them, 176 (13%) perceived high barriers, 929 (66%) intermediate barriers, and 299 (21%) participants had low grade barriers. The medians barrier scores for ‘Negative attitude’ (3.5), ‘busy’ (2.5), poor access (2), non-affordability (3), fear (3), ‘primary eye care service related’ (3.3), ‘pediatric eye services related’ (2.7) and ‘bad experience’ (2). The barrier score was associated with mothers (P = 0.004), older age group (P = 0.008), region (P

Key words: Preschoolers, vision screening, childhood blindness, barriers to eye care, pediatric eye care