The cost-effectiveness of alternative vision screening models among preschool children in rural China.

Purpose: To explore the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of three vision screening models among preschool children in rural China.

Methods: Vision screening was carried out among children aged 4-5 years in 65 preschools in two counties in Northwest China, using Crowded Single Lea Symbols to test visual acuity. Children were assigned randomly by school to one of three screening models: screening by teachers (15 schools, 1835 children), local optometrists (30 schools, 1718 children) or volunteers (20 schools, 2183 children).

Effect of a Local Vision Care Center on Eyeglasses Use and School Performance in Rural China: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Visual impairment is common among children in rural China, but fewer than one-third of children with poor vision own and wear eyeglasses.

Objective: To study the effect of hospital-based vision centers on academic performance, ownership of eyeglasses, and eyeglasses-wearing behavior in rural Chinese children.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Cluster randomized, investigator-masked, clinical trial from September 2014 through June 2015.

Health Seeking Behavior among Rural Left-Behind Children: Evidence from Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces in China.

More than 60 million children in rural China are “left-behind”—both parents live and work far from their rural homes and leave their children behind. This paper explores differences in how left-behind and non-left-behind children seek health remediation in China’s vast but understudied rural areas. This study examines this question in the context of a program to provide vision health care to myopic rural students.