Effectiveness of preschool vision screening.

The ninth systematic review (Snowdon and Stewart-Brown 1997) from the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination concludes that the lack of good evidence about the effectiveness of preschool vision screening justifies the withdrawal of the programme. The authors are concerned about the ethical correctness of inviting very young children to an implicitly beneficial examination when there is little to justify the intervention. The following article discusses the issues associated with vision screening of children aged three and four years old.