Relative prevalence of refractive errors in children and young people
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Relative prevalence of refractive errors in children and young people age 0 to less 16 years (less than 19 years if in full-time education) in England and link to socioeconomic factors
IRAS ID
350392
Contact name
Anthony Khawaja
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 31 days
Research summary
Every time a young person under the age of 16 years (or, if in full-time education, under the age of 19 years) has a test for glasses, the optometrist enters the result onto an NHS database called General Ophthalmic Services 3 (GOS3). They do this to claim their NHS fee for doing the eye test. The database holds people’s first name, surname, address, date of birth, NHS number (optional), the date of the sight test and the spectacle prescription. A similar database (GOS4) is used to claim fees for spectacle replacements and repairs.
We want to find out how many children and young people in the UK are wearing glasses, and whether they are short-sighted or long-sighted. Using the GOS3/4 databases would be a way to find out without having to do more eye tests on lots of children. We would like to use the original databases to make an anonymised database first, so nobody will be able to identify a person whose data we analyse.
Then we would like to make a pseudonymised database, which means that instead of identifiers (name, date of birth), every dataset gets a study ID. The researchers who will do the analysis will not be able to identify a person from the data. Only people with the right authorisation (the lead researcher, the University as sponsor, and people from regulatory authorities) can ever check which data came from which person.
Having a study ID and a pseudonymised database will allow us to look at how the prescription changes as children grow up, and we can also see whether children in some areas, for example big cities or areas where many people are known to have little money, are more or less likely to be prescribed glasses.REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/SW/0081
Date of REC Opinion
1 Aug 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion