News reports from the conference

Inequities in eye care for adolescents documented

Visits to eye care providers by adolescents are significantly lower in provinces that do not offer routine eye examinations under their health insurance plan, survey data shows.

This and other findings come from an analysis of data from the Canadian Community Health Survey and presented by McMaster University, Hamilton medical student Kunyong Xu.

In the study, Xu and others analyzed findings from the 2007-2008 survey conducted by Statistics Canada which asked how often respondents aged 12-17 years how often they had seen or talked to an eye specialist such as an ophthalmologist or optometrist in the past year. Findings were available on 11,015 respondents from across Canada.

Overall, 45.6% of this population used eye care services during the study period. Utilization was significantly higher in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec where these visits are covered by the provincial health plan versus those in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island where there is partial or no coverage (46.4% versus. 35.9%). Utilization was lowest in the three territories (27.1%) and this was attributed to the lack of eye care providers in these regions.

Multivariate analysis showed that adolescents in provinces with less eye care coverage were 24% less likely to use such services (95% CI 0.67-0.85) while those in the territories were 37% less likely (95% CI 0.48-0.83) compared to provinces where eye care visits are covered under the provincial health plans.

Significantly lower rates of eye visits were also observed for males, adolescents living in dwellings not owned by a member of those household and those reading outside of school work for less than three hours weekly.

The research was conducted by Xu in conjunction with Drs. Graham Trope, Ray Buncic and Yaping Jin from the University of Toronto.