Factors influencing post-screening visits of students to local vision centres in rural northwest China.

Clinical Relevance: Children with uncorrected visual impairment have lower scores on a variety of motor and cognitive tests. Exploring the influencing factors of low-income groups seeking vision care services is helpful for identifying relevant barriers and necessary measures to improve the utilization rate of vision care services.

Background: The community-based vision center (VC) is a popular model for solving vision problem of students in rural China. Compliance is the key factor to the success of the VC model. Factors determining compliance with visitations to VC among primary school students after screening were explored.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 15,763 students from 228 primary schools. Information was collected through questionnaires and vision examinations. The determinants that affect visits of students to the VC were analyzed using logistic regression.

Results: Among the 15,763 sample, 5,361 (34%) students had a visual impairment. At baseline, only 962 (18%) of students with visual impairment sought vision care services. After a local VC was established, among the 5,163 students who needed to be referred, only 2,237 (43.33%) students visited the VC. Multivariate logistic regression models for predicting students visit the VC revealed that the following characteristics were significant predictors: poor uncorrected visual acuity (P < 0.001), a higher grade level (P = 0.008; P = 0.010), 'left-behind' children (P < 0.001), short living distance between home and the VC (P < 0.001), and the fact that these students lived in Gansu province (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Establishing a VC that provides students with vision screening and free vision care services can increase the rate of seeking vision health services for students in rural areas, but the compliance rate still needs to be improved. The influencing factors for student compliance have been identified.