PURPOSE: 1) To check knowledge and actions developed by teachers of elementary schools working with low vision students, regarding signals and symptoms evidencing the students' visual difficulties: 2) To collect information useful for the design of preventing actions regarding eye health in school. METHODS: A survey was applied to teachers of elementary schools in 23 public schools in the country of Campinas / SP, with low vision students, during the academic year of 1999. A self-applied questionnaire was used as tool for data obtention. RESULTS: Of 84 teachers, 68 (81%) answered the questionnaire. The average teaching experience was 20.8 years. Most of those teachers (92.6%) did not report any previous specific training in visual deficiency. As concerns the recognition of signs and symptoms, most of the teachers indicated blackboard reading difficulty (94.1%), followed by headache (89.7%) and placement of subjects too close to the eyes (88.2%). A little over half of the teachers (55.9%) identified students showing visual difficulties. As regards developed actions 84.2% of the teachers declared to have oriented the students and 63.2% oriented parents and relatives and also informed the school about the fact. Only 26.3% oriented the student to look for an ophthalmologist. CONCLUSION: Teachers did not show adequate knowledge about eye health and thus the developed actions were not comprehensive. Therefore, in order to develop actions regarding the prevention of visual impairment and to promote the enhancement of eye health, the implementation of a program aiming at the care of eye health in the public school is suggested.
Vision, low; Vision disorders; School health; Eye health; Knowledge attitudes and practice; Health education; Students; Visual acuity; School health services
