Level of visual disorders in clients referred to medical exemption commission of Alavi hospital in Ardabil

Visual disorders have recently become a matter of concern for World Health Organization. Since most clients of military medical ophthalmic commission are young, assessment of visual disorders is very important in this group. This study was performed in order to determine the frequency distribution of common visual disorders among people who refer to military medical ophthalmic commission of Ardabil province.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on all patients of Alavi Ophthalmology Clinic of Ardabil during years 2000-5 who referred to Medical Exemption Commission. 5203 people were studied and the data registered in medical files were collected in a questionnaire and were analyzed by SPSS 13 software. Chi square test was used for comparison of qualitative variables.

4935 (94.84%) of clients had a kind of visual disorder. 94% had refractive errors from which 33.8% were mild, 48% were moderate, and 18% were severe. 3413 (65.6%) of patients had myopia and 1479 (28.4%) had hyperopia. 4806 (92.37%) of patients had astigmatism and 35.15% had anisometropia. Corneal disease (1.07%), strabismus (0.99%) and cataract (0.78%) were other major visual disorders.

Special refractive errors lead to exemption from military service and most of referees despite having refractive disorders are summoned to military service; therefore, determining the prevalence of refractive errors and visual disorders may be useful in major defensive programs for military medicine authorities. Retrospective evaluation of the above results may also be useful in Amblyopia preventing programs.