Completeness of coverage and results of preventive ophthalmological examinations of children

Abstract

Purpose: to study and analyze sectoral statistical reports in the regional aspect on the coverage of the child population of different age groups with ophthalmological preventive examinations and their results in the pre-war period and the first year of the war against Russian military aggression.Materials and methods. Materials: data of sectoral statistical reporting for the years 2020–2022. Methods: bibliosemantic, medico-statistical, of structural-and-logical analysis. Indicators of the number of detected children with a decrease in visual acuity are calculated per 1000 examined children. Statistical data from the territories controlled by Ukraine were used.Results. The share of children covered by this type of medical care in the country decreased by 9,9% and in 2022 amounted to 85,13%. At the same time, a low level of coverage of children with ophthalmological preventive examinations was registered in the administrative territories on which active hostilities were carried out: Donetsk (26,23%), Luhansk (not conducted), Kharkiv (66,18%), Kherson (16,43%), Zaporizhzhia (86,68%) regions. Throughout the years of the study, the level of coverage of children with preventive ophthalmological examinations did not reach 80% in Lviv region. The indicators of the number of detected children with a decrease in acuity of vision by regions differ by 2,9 times: from 25,46 per 1000 examined in Transcarpathian region to 74,25 in Zhytomyr region.In 2020, the indicator of visual acuity decline in children who went to school at the age of 6 was 45,17, in children who went to school at the age of 7 it was 58.73, and in students in grades 9–11 – 74,16. In 2022, these indicators were 53,93; 65,30 and 73,28 respectively.In 2022, the marginal difference in the proportion of children with visual acuity decreased among all preventively examined children in the context of the regions of Ukraine composed 2.9 times: from 25.46 in the Transcarpathian region to 74.25 per 1000 children examined in the Zhytomyr region; the marginal difference in the share of children with decreased visual acuity among preventively examined children who started studying at school at the age of 6 years in the context of the regions of Ukraine composed 5.0 times: from 29.54 in the Mykolaiv region to 148.98 in the Kherson region; the marginal difference in the share of children with visual acuity reduction among preventively examined children who started studying at school at the age of 7 years in the context of the regions of Ukraine was 7.0 times: from 27.01 in the Mykolaiv region to 190.21 in the Kirovohrad region; the marginal difference in the share of children with decreased visual acuity among prophylactically examined schoolchildren of grades 9-11 in the context of the regions of Ukraine was 3.8 times: from 33.29 in the Transcarpathian region to 126.91 in the Zaporizhzhia region. Comparison of the results of preventive ophthalmological examinations of children of all age categories and children studying in grades 9-11 indicates that during the period of study at school, a significant proportion of children lose visual acuity. In the country as a whole, this indicator composed 1.27 times in 2020: from 43,81 to 74.16 and in 2022 1.57 times: from 46.61 to 73.28. The results obtained require research in order to study the determinants of the formation of the health of the organ of vision in the children's population and to establish the reasons for the significant difference in the indicators of loss of visual acuity by children in the context of the regions of the country.Conclusions. The results of the study pointed to the negative impact of the war against Russian military aggression on the coverage of children with preventive ophthalmological examinations. It has also been established that during the period of study at school children lose visual acuity.