The Gambia screening project was launched in 2022 to provide vision screening for school-aged children. Within this screening programme, the refractive error measurements of the QuickSee Free autorefractor were compared to cycloplegic refraction in this outreach setting. Six rural schools were included over a one-week period and screening was completed for 2136 children of which 142 were referred for further assessment. QuickSee Free results were obtained for 113, 11 had strabismus, five had significant corneal scars and 10 did not have cycloplegic refraction as had left school prior to examination. Hence, complete data was available for 101 children aged 3–17 years (mean 10.2 ±3.45 years). There was moderate to good agreement for spherical equivalent, sphere and cylinder for QuickSee Free vs cycloplegic refraction. Highest correlation was found for cylinder, then spherical equivalent, and lowest for sphere. The average bias for QuickSee Free was slightly negative for sphere (-0.32) and spherical equivalent (-0.33), i.e. underestimation, which may be due to accommodation. A positive bias existed for cylinder but near zero. The authors conclude QuickSee Free is promising to assess refractive error in settings where there are limited resources. This requires more research with large numbers of participants.
QuickSee Free autorefractor results in outreach settings
Reviewed by Fiona Rowe
Evaluation of the PlenOptika QuickSee Free portable autorefractor in schools in The Gambia.
CONTRIBUTOR
Fiona Rowe (Prof)
Institute of Population Health, University of Liverpool, UK.
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