Table 1

The characteristics of the 10 study areas

Name of the town	Total population	Number of children aged 15 and below	Distance to the County hospital (km)	Number of KIMs trained	Average number of people searched by each KI trained	Number of children examined by specialist	No. of BL/SVI children
Pingshan	170 695	38 165	<1	44	3879	41	4
Daling	61 472	13 727	13	24	2561	22	4
Renshan	75 671	16 942	30	37	2045	18	4
Jilong	38 850	8713	45	36	1079	13	5
Huangbu	39 554	8860	52	51	776	24	2
Duozhu	106 429	23 887	20	45	2365	22	8
Baipenzhu	22 661	5068	30	23	985	8	0
Andun	64 550	14 547	45	32	2017	23	8
Gaotan and Baokou	44 297	9907	90	22	2014	3	2
	624 179	1 39 816		314	1988	174	37
Welfare house*	24	24	0.5	0	0	24	5
Special school†	35	35	<1	0	0	35	0
	624 238			314	1988	233	42

*14 of them were male, 1 had disabled people’s certificate, 3 of the BL/SVI were very sick.
†16 of them were male.
BL/SVI, childhood blindness and severe visual impairment; KI, key informant; KIM, key informant method.