Race, poverty, and the lack of follow-up for Arkansas students that fail vision screenings: a cross-sectional study over 7 years.

Purpose: To analyze rates of follow-up eye care for students that failed school vision screenings over a 7-year period in 238 Arkansas school districts.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, vision screening, demographic, socioeconomic, academic, and eye care provider data were collected. The main outcomes were referral rates, rates of follow-up eye care for students with failed vision screenings, and estimated associations between the rate of follow-up and school district and county-level characteristics, such as race, poverty, insurance coverage, academic achievement, and the number of eye care providers.