ArticleBMJ open2017
Is there evidence that the yearly numbers of children newly certified with sight impairment in England and Wales has increased between 1999/2000 and 2014/2015? A cross-sectional study.
Article in BMJ open, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trends in childhood visual impairment. Insights from a 10-year retrospective study at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.Eye (London, England) · 2026Article
- Patient-Reported Social Impact of Molecularly Confirmed Macular Dystrophies and Cone-Rod Dystrophies.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Trends in paediatric visual impairment in England and Wales: a retrospective study (2009-2022).Eye (London, England) · 2025Article
- Patient-Reported Social Impact of Molecularly Confirmed Retinitis Pigmentosa.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Global certification of visual impairment registries: A scoping review.Acta ophthalmologica · 2025Article
- Sight impairment registration in Trinidad: trend in causes and population coverage in comparison to the National Eye Survey of Trinidad and Tobago.Eye (London, England) · 2024Article
- Uniting vision data and more.Eye (London, England) · 2024Article
- Clinical Research on the Leading Causes of Severe Sight Impairment in the UK General and Working Populations.Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2023Article
- Article
- Reporting on Australian childhood visual impairment: the first 10 years.Eye (London, England) · 2022Article
- Recent trends in vision impairment certifications in England and Wales.Eye (London, England) · 2020Article
- Two-Dimensional Analysis of Horizontal and Vertical Pursuit in Infantile Nystagmus Reveals Quantitative Deficits in Accuracy and Precision.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2020Article
- Oral levodopa rescues retinal morphology and visual function in a murine model of human albinism.Pigment cell & melanoma research · 2019Article
- A pilot study regarding basic knowledge of "cortical visual impairment in children" among ophthalmologists.Indian journal of ophthalmology · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo use routine data capture from hospitals in England and Wales to identify whether there has been an increase in the annual numbers of children newly certified sight impaired in England and Wales between 1999/2000 and 2014/2015 and to examine causes of certifiable sight impairment in children certified in 2014/2015.
designA cross-sectional study including an analysis of all certificates of vision impairment completed in hospitals in England and Wales each year between 2007/2008 and 2014/2015 and all certificates completed in hospitals in England and Wales in 1999/2000.
participantsCertificates for all individuals aged 16 years or less at the time of certification in England and Wales for each financial year between 1 April 2007 and the 31 March 2015 and for individuals aged 15 years or less for the year ending 31 March 2000. We obtained information on the main cause of certifiable sight loss for all children certified in 2014/2015. We estimated crude and sex specific incidence estimates with 95% confidence intervals computed by Byars method.
resultsIn 1999/2000, the estimated incidence (95 % CI) of certification was 8.2 (7.7 to 8.8) per 1 00 000. In 2007/2008, the estimated incidence was statistically significantly higher at 10.1 (9.5 to 10.7). Since then a trend of increasing incidence with time has been observed until 2014/2015 when an estimated incidence of 13.3 (12.6 to 14.0) was observed. Hereditary retinal dystrophies, cerebral visual impairment and nystagmus were the most common single causes of certifiable sight impairment in children in 2014/2015.
conclusionOur findings show that in England and Wales there has been an increase in the number of children newly certified sight impaired by consultant ophthalmologists since 1999/2000. This mirrors our previous findings based on data originating within social service departments.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.