Cross-eyed, lazy eye often undiagnosed
Many U.S. children diagnosed as cross-eyed or with lazy eye have gone undiagnosed and hadn't received care, a study found.
Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California found that both strabismus, known as cross-eyed, and amblyopia, often referred to as lazy eye, were more prevalent in older children than in younger children.
The study of more than 6,000 Los Angeles-area children -- an equal number of African-American and Hispanic children, ages 6 months to 6 years -- found overall prevalence of strabismus was 2.5 percent regardless of gender or ethnicity and the overall prevalence of amblyopia was 2.6 percent in both ethnic groups.
"This is the first evaluation of strabismus and amblyopia in these two ethnic groups," principal investigator Dr. Rohit Varma of the University of Southern California said in a statement. "What was most surprising about our findings was that the vast majority of children who we diagnosed with either strabismus or amblyopia had been previously undiagnosed. Both of these disorders can be detected by age 3, so this points to a crucial need for early screening and intervention programs that could prevent lifelong visual impairments."
The study is available in the online edition of the journal Ophthalmology. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International
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