J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  1976 Dec;17(4):489-493.

Survey of Causes of Blindness on Blind Students in Korea

• Lee WK
• Sohn MS

Abstract

This is a study on the causes of the blindness for 217 blind students in Korea. Blindness in defined as the visual acuity for distance of 0.1 (20/200) or less in the better eye with best correction. The causes of blindness in descending order of frequency are as follows: unknown eye diseases (32.3%). congenital diseases (31.3%). infectious diseases (8.8%), meningitis (6.5%), injury and intoxication(6%), refractive errors(6%), febrile diseases(6%), and malnutrition (1.4%), etc. Rate of blindness by site and type of affection is shown as: atrophia bulbi (33.6%). optic nerve diseases(23.1%). cataract(18.996), corneal diseases(11.4%), glaucoma(10.696). anophthalmos(7.4%). amblyopia(6.5%), retinal diseases (2.8%), uveitis (1.0%), high myopia(0.5%), and other diseases (6.4%), etc. Comparisons with other statistics on causes of blindness in the inland and the foreign countries are attempted. Evaluation of results and problems establishing a more detailed and nationwide survey in future are briefly discussed in comment.

MeSH Terms

Blindness*
Communicable Diseases
Eye Diseases
Humans
Korea*
Malnutrition
Meningitis
Optic Nerve
Retinal Diseases
Uveitis
Visual Acuity