Current Vision Screening Practices across Canada, by Prov/Terr, as of January 2013

5.1.2 Current Vision Screening Practices across Canada, by Prov/Terr, as of January 2013
  • Universal Vision Screening
  • Other/Voluntary (Non-Universal) Screening
Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Newfoundland and Labrador
Nova Scotia
Northwest Territories
Nunavut
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Saskatchewan
Yukon
AB BC MB NB NL NT NS NU ON PE QC SK YT

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This program is prevention-based, focuses or early detection and encourages parents to have kindergarten-aged children undergo a comprehensive eye exam prior to starting or during their first year of school. Other provinces, in addition to their existing screening programs, provide optometric coverage for comprehensive eye exams, complete or partial assessment, diagnostic and treatment services among children and youth up to 17 years of age. The types of coverage and frequency of services varies across the country.

This variation in vision screening practices across Canada may be a result of a lack of strong evidence on the impact of screening on the prevalence of amblyopia in screened versus unscreened populations and the lack of a system to monitor outcomes of children with amblyopia. 1, 2

For more complete information about vision screening across Canada, click here.

Click here to see how we gathered these data.

1Institute of Health Economics. The safety and effectiveness of preschool vision screening. Edmonton AB: Institute of Health Economics; 2012

Seven of the 13 Canadian provinces/territories have public health-funded vision screening programs – specifically Newfoundland & Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. In general public health nurses provide these programs and the types of exams and frequency of exams tend to vary. Québec, Ontario and Nunavut have voluntary (non-universal) screening either during routine primary care visits or by public health/primary care nurses in more remote locations. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario have launched the Eye-See-Eye-Learn (ESEL).

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