Health, Education and Social outcomes of children with VI/SVIBL
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Health, education and social outcomes of children with visual impairment and blindness (VI/SVIBL)
IRAS ID
274941
Contact name
Jugnoo Rahi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
years, 40 months, days
Research summary
Severe visual impairment and blindness in childhood (SVIBL) is uncommon but has a significant impact on all aspects of life. Children with SVIBL are likely to have worse health outcomes and therefore experience poorer health compared to children without visual disability.
Control of childhood blindness is a priority of the World Health Organization’s global strategy called Vision 2020.The overall aim of our study is to explore the health, educational and social outcomes of children diagnosed with visual impairment, severe visual impairment and blindness (VI/SVIBL) in England.
Methods
We will use data collected in previous national surveillance studies (BCVIS). These two BCVIS studies collected socio-demographic and clinical data at the point of diagnosis and at one year follow up. We will seek permission to link BCVIS data to routinely collected hospital, death and school records for 1074 cases in England. We will also request hospital and education records for a sample of children from the general population and compare outcomes to ‘sighted’ children.We will investigate the long-term impact of children with VI/SVIBL, from birth till early adulthood. We will also report the healthcare costs to the NHS and to the family. This study will provide population-based data that will directly inform national health policy. This information would otherwise be unavailable. This study is the first of its kind internationally.
REC name
London - Bloomsbury Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/0640
Date of REC Opinion
8 Jun 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion