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Sight Care have reported statistics indicating that parents are finding taking their children for regular optician check ups challenging. Whilst trips to the dentist continue to strike fear into kids across the country, it appears that having an eye test can also bring about problems for families in the UK.
The group Sight Care is an organisation set up to help independent opticians with their business and marketing strategies. As a not-for-profit company, they offer support for smaller optical businesses to help them compete and continue to do so in what is fast becoming a market overwhelmed with large high street brands. Sight Care as a whole consists of Sight Care Services, Sight Care Trading and Optical California, all based in the optics market.
Stats at a glance:
- 1 in 3 parents find a trip for an eye test for their children, 'a battle'
- 1 in 3 parents believe their child may be struggling in school due to vision issues
- 1 in 3 parents are unaware that children should visit an opticians once per year to test their eye sight
In conjunction with Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, the research by Sight Care confirms what many optical practitioners already suspect, that a lot of children are not being checked regularly enough to assess their eye sight and detect possible conditions in their early stages. It appears that a large proportion of children also now class the visit as daunting, judging by the volume of parents who stated that eye tests were challenging to get their kids to. Recent surveys on motorists also continued to show the lack of education amongst the population as regards the regularity of eye testing, inline with the 33% of parents who are unaware.
The most encouraging news from the survey, however, came from those parents who had taken their children to eye examinations and been supplied with corrective eye wear, with almost 1 in 2 of these families noticing an improvement in concentration levels as a result. In line with this, recommendations were also made to opticians themselves to highlight the option of contact lenses to children who require help with their vision, as many parents simply didn't realise they were available and applicable to minors, which can help the stigma many younger people may feel about the idea of wearing glasses.