Causes of blindness in children attending four schools for the blind in Thailand and the Philippines

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: Causes of blindness in children attending four schools for the blind in Thailand and the Philippines
المؤلفون: Allen Foster, Clare Gilbert
المصدر: International Ophthalmology. 17:229-234
بيانات النشر: Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 1993.
سنة النشر: 1993
مصطلحات موضوعية: Adult, Male, Rural Population, Pediatrics, medicine.medical_specialty, Adolescent, Eye Diseases, Urban Population, genetic structures, Philippines, Visual Acuity, Glaucoma, Disease, Blindness, medicine, Humans, Child, Vitamin A Deficiency, business.industry, Childhood blindness, Retinopathy of prematurity, Thailand, medicine.disease, eye diseases, Vitamin A deficiency, Ophthalmology, Child, Preschool, Etiology, Female, business, Corneal disease
الوصف: Using WHO definitions of visual loss and a standardised methodology, 256 children were examined in schools for the blind in Thailand (1 school) and the Philippines (3 schools). 244 (95%) were blind (BL) or severely visually impaired (SVI). Causes of SVI and blindness were classified anatomically and aetiologically, and avoidable causes identified. Causes of visual loss in Khon Kaen, Thailand (n = 65) and Manila, Philippines, (n = 113) were similar, with conditions of the whole globe accounting for 27.7 and 27.4% of SVI/BL; retinal disease 29.2 and 23.0%; cataract 16.9 and 16.8%; corneal disease 12.3 and 13.4%; and optic nerve disease and glaucoma 6.2 and 8.8%. Perinatal factors accounted for 20.0 and 23.0% of SVI/BL; hereditary disease 13.8 and 17.7%; and 12.3 and 15.0% was due to events occurring during childhood. The underlying aetiology could not be determined in 50.8 and 41.6% of cases, respectively. In the two schools together twenty six children (15%) were blind from retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and 16 (9%) from corneal scarring attributed to Vitamin A deficiency. 103 of 178 (58%) children had avoidable causes of visual loss. In the Filipino towns of Baguio and Davao (n = 66), the causes of visual loss were different from those in Khon Kaen and Manila, with 54.8 and 42.9% of SVI/BL being due to corneal disease, and only 3.2 and 8.5% to retinal disease. Childhood factors were more important (61.3 and 57.1%) than hereditary (9.7 and 17.1%) or perinatal factors (0 and 2.9%). Thirty one children (47%) had SVI/BL attributed to Vitamin A deficiency. No child was blind from ROP. 42 of 66 (64%) of children had avoidable causes of blindness. Overall 60% of children with SVI/BL had avoidable causes of visual loss in these 4 schools. Approximately half could have been prevented by primary health and eye care services and half could have been managed by surgical ophthalmological procedures. The causes of blindness identified in this blind school study suggest that the major causes are different for schools serving rural populations compared to those serving urban communities. Different control strategies are required for the different situations.
تدمد: 1573-2630
0165-5701
URL الوصول: https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::752ba05bcc5b26d9c5a773d369d76423
https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01007745
حقوق: CLOSED
رقم الأكسشن: edsair.doi.dedup.....752ba05bcc5b26d9c5a773d369d76423
قاعدة البيانات: OpenAIRE