A child’s vision, which fully develops and changes throughout childhood, requires consistent evaluation, referral to eye care, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up to care to ensure vision problems are caught and treated before progressing to unnecessary permanent vision loss. Early detection and intervention for vision disorders in children are part of national goals and health care standards; yet, there is no federal support for a national-level children’s vision and eye health initiative that coordinates and promotes best practice models for vision screening, referrals to eye care, and follow-up to eye care treatment or professional development. Accountability for addressing children’s vision and eye health are also absent from many programs that address other aspects of children’s health and development, including children’s hearing or oral health – meaning, there is little to no impetus to address it or coordinate action to improve it.
At the state level, significant disparities exist in children’s vision and eye health outcomes and access to eye care across the United States. State laws to address children’s vision and eye health vary widely in approaches and often lack protocols for referrals to eye care providers, documentation to ensure eye care was received, or support to address barriers in access to eye care. States may also lack the necessary resources to adequately capture data on rates of received eye care, which leaves a lack of information as to why eye care was not received thus leading to challenges in addressing existing disparities among demographic sub-populations or in rural or under-resourced communities.
Thus, without a strong public health system in place, a child’s vision problem may go undetected, undiagnosed, and untreated, leaving them vulnerable to deficits in development, academics, and potential vision loss that follows them into adulthood.
