Chief Investigator: Professor Nicola Anstice

Funding Amount : $99,439

Recipient: Flinders University

Overview: Twenty-five percent of South Australian primary school children do not have the spectacles they need for clear and comfortable vision increasing their risk of reduced academic outcomes and exclusion from many broader educational and social activities. Inequities exist within the current delivery of paediatric eyecare services which are delivered privately by community optometrists. Therefore, children living in areas of greater socioeconomic deprivation are less likely to access eye-care services. We aim to pilot a school-based eyecare programme to detect and correct vision problems at school-entry and assess the outcomes of delivering on-site eye examinations on reading and learning behaviours.