The Czechoslovak Republic was founded in 1918 after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in which it had territorially belonged. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into two independent states: the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.
Both countries have been members of the European Union since May 2004. The Czech Republic has 10 million inhabitants; about 1.5 million of them are children under the age of 15.
Since the 1960s, medical care for children has been provided by a dense network of pediatric practices. The visual acuity is also examined in these practices at regular intervals once the children have reached the age of 3 years.