Purpose: To identify barriers in carrying out ophthalmologic evaluation of schoolchildren in a community project, aiming at improving plans for prevention and care of ophthal-mologic diseases in the community. Research Design and Methods: Descriptive survey of 227 pa-rents of students with ocular problems. The individuals were screened and interviewed during the "Veja Bem" project held at Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Uni-versidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP), São Paulo, Brazil, 1998. Results: 77.1% of the subjects had not completed elementary school and 39.6% have a family income of less than U$ 230 per month. 48.0% of the students were males and 52.0% were females, 20.4% of ages of 8 and more; 67.8% of them were not previous ophthalmologic evaluation. Among the difficulties reported during the project were the lack of transportation (41.6%), lack of orientation (31.0%) and the loss of a working day (24.8%). The main reasons reported for not appearing at previous appointments were that the parents had not received adequate orientation (52.0%) and, again, the loss of a working day (19.4%). Conclusion: There were socioeconomic difficulties in carrying out ophthalmologic evaluation of schoolchildren in a community project. The solution or minimization of schoolchildren's ophthalmologic problems depends signifi-cantly on the joint efforts of schoolteachers, the family, and the community and health personnel.
Public Health Ophthalmology; School health; Health Education; Visual rehabilitation
