Nearly 40% of young children have never had their vision tested by a doctor

New data from the CDC finds that more than a third of children between the ages of 3 and 5 had never had their eyes checked by a physician. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that children in this age group get a vision test at least once to check for lazy eye (called amblyopia) and promptly begin treatment. Looking at data between 2016-2017, researchers found that 64% of children aged 3-5 had ever had an eye test. At the same time, vision tests weren’t as common among certain groups: Hispanic children were less likely to have had a vision test, as were children who had some form of public insurance or who were uninsured. Children who hadn’t had a regular health checkup in the previous year were also less likely to have gotten their eyes checked.