2Doç. Dr., Anamur Anamed Özel Hastanesi, Göz Hastalıkları, Mersin, Türkiye DOI : 10.37844/glauc.cat.2021.16.25 Purpose: It is aimed to reveal ocular disorders causing the most common and most severe vision loss and frequencies of treatable and preventable causes of vision loss in individuals with visual impairment in the study region.
Materials and Methods: The files of 3112 individuals who applied for social security benefits were analyzed retrospectively. 882 patients who had 10% and higher functional visual impairment were included in the study. Visual impairment was categorized as mild (10-29%), moderate (30-49%), severe (50-69%), profound (70-89%), and near-total vision loss (90-100%). The distribution of ocular disorders to age groups, gender, and visual impairment severity was analyzed and compared.
Results: Cataract (52.4%), age-related macular degeneration (20.6%), corneal disorders (9.3%), optic neuropathy (8.4%), and diabetic retinopathy (6.9%) were the most common disorders, respectively. More than half of the overall individuals and also individuals with severe and (near) total visual impairment had cataracts. 285 patients (32%) had severe or worse (50% and above) visual impairment and 81 (9.2%) patients had (near) total visual impairment (90% and higher).
Conclusion: Almost three-quarters of the visual impairment causes were avoidable in the study population. Cataract was still the leading cause of vision loss in individuals with visual impairment.
Keywords : Visual impairment, blindness, cataract, ocular disorder, vision loss