Eye Health Awareness and School-Based Screening in Saudi Schools: A Systematic Literature Review

Background: Vision impairments are harder to diagnose among children, even though detection in childhood offers the biggest window for arresting potentially irreversible impacts on children's socioemotional and educational performance. Purpose: This study sought to determine the prevalence of vision impairments in school-going children in Saudi Arabia and gap between the knowledge of visual impairments in school-going children and parental care-seeking practices relating to the effectiveness of school-based eye health screening programs, implementation challenges, and best practices. Methods: The study uses a systematic review and meta-analysis conducted in December 2024 to January 2025. Results: The present study analyzed primary 35 studies (n = 30,277). While estimates varied materially across regions and demographics, the most prevalent eye conditions affected school-going children were (un)corrected refractive errors and amblyopia. The prevalence of refractive errors, hyperopia, myopia, and astigmatism was 27.43% [18.14,39.20], 13.01% [4.00,33.00], 8.59% [3.53,19.42], and 15.35% [4.97,38.62], respectively. Amblyopia and strabismus affected 0.07 [0.04, 0.11] and 0.05[0.01,0.18] of the population, respectively. Even so, only 23.87% [10.91,44.54] of children already had glasses or contact lenses, despite more than 61.74, 95% [46.78, 74.77] of parents being open to children having glasses/lenses. Routine screening was estimated at in 38.85%, CI [28.99, 49.71.79]. Gerental awareness about eye health and specific vision impairments is inadequate, inconsistent, and broadly varied. School-based screening is equally basic or need to be officially established. Conclusion: Children's immature ocular system offers good opportunities for intervening before reduced (or loss of) vision can materially affect quality of life, and education-work-life opportunities. With near universal primary school enrolment and continual engagements between children and education practitioners, schools offer an ideal institutional framework for early vision screening and intervention.