V Lopez Fernandez¹, G C Olivera Roulet²
¹National Rehabilitation Service, Sensorial Rehabilitation, Capital Federal, Argentina; ²National Rehabilitation Service, Resources in Rehabilitation, Capital Federal, Argentina
Purpose
To determine the characteristics of visually impaired population requesting the Certificate of Disability. This data can help encouraging new projects to prevent visual disabilities and stress our efforts in early treatment and rehabilitation programs.
Methods
Retrospective survey of 1316 records of the National Rehabilitation Service in 2000 were analyzed to determine the prevalence of causes of impairment, age, gender, geographic distribution and employment.
Eligibility criteria for determining visual handicap was : best corrected visual acuity of 20/60 or worse or visual fields of 20 degrees in the horizontal field with a stimulus of III4e.
Results
Of the 1316 patients, 477 (36,24%) were visually impaired, 839 (63,75%) were hearing impaired. Among the 477(100%) of our study group, 110 (23,06%) had bilateral amaurosis, 105 (22,01%) unilateral amaurosis, 50 (10,48%) low vision, 26 (5,45%) retinopathy of prematurity, 25 (5,24%) diabetes retinopathy, 21 (4,40%) retinitis pigmentosa, 20 (4,19%) ARMD, 17 (3,56%) glaucoma, 14 (2,93%) bilateral optic atrophy, 13 (2,72%) myopic retinopathy, 5 (1,04) nistagmus and 49 (10,27%) with other diagnoses. Gender distribution showed 289 (60,58%) of males and 188 (39,41%) of females. Employment rates showed 367 (76,93%) of unemployed, 48(10,06%) employed and 41(8,59%) not applicable. Regarding age distribution, the highest rate of visual impairment was between 31 and 60 years old. The population assessed lived mainly in Buenos Aires. The study group showed a 23,06 % of blind people and 76,94% with visual abilities in the need of new approaches to prevention, rehabilitation and community support.
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