Trends in Use of Eye Care Services for Children

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In order to increase public awareness of the individual and societal burdens and costs of eye conditions and visual impairment, data are urgently needed on the numbers and characteristics of people with eye conditions as well as information on their eye health care resource use. Since children are at particular risk for undetected problems and because both undetected and detected problems can become exacerbated over time, potentially seriously impacting on their development, there is a need to examine these characteristics especially for children. This purpose of this project is to present an analysis of the trends in access to, utilization of, and expenditures on eye care services for children. We will also estimate the number of children with diagnosed eye conditions and quantify the associations between the presence of eye conditions and use of eye care services and child, family, and insurance characteristics. The specific aims of this project are: (1) to characterize the population of children (<18 years old) in the United States who have diagnosed eye conditions with respect to socioeconomic (SES), clinical, and insurance factors (trends over time will also be examined); (2) to estimate utilization and expenditure patterns and sources of payment for eye care, including eyeglasses, and contact lenses by child, family, and insurance coverage for children (trends over time will also be examined); and (3) to estimate the relationship between family health characteristics, such as exposure to passive smoking and history of parental eye conditions and children's eye conditions and use of services. We will use data from the 1996 through the 2000 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS), supplemented with information from the 1995 though the 1999 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS), to pursue these goals.