Characteristics of 681 Low Vision Patients in Korea

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to evaluate the characteristics and the changes of low vision patients over ten years in Korea, and to establish useful data for planning low vision services, active care and rehabilitation. We conducted a retrospective study of 681 low vision patients who visited two low vision clinics in Seoul from 1995 to 2008. Age and sex distribution, cause of low vision, type of prescribed low vision aids, and changes of the characteristics were reviewed. In result, male were more than female. The age group between 11 and 20-yr-old (18.1%) was the largest age group. Optic atrophy (28.3%) was main causes of low vision. However, elderly low vision patients is increasing and macular degeneration is becoming a leading cause of low vision (P<0.05). One thousand five low vision aids (LVAs) were prescribed for 681 patients (1.46±0.62 aids for each patient). Near LVAs were prescribed more than distance LVAs. In most patients, the use of LVAs improved both near and distance visual function. This study is the first survey of a large number of low vision patients over a ten year period in Korea. On the base of this study, the planning of low vision services and more active rehabilitation for low vision patients, especially elderly patients, need in Korea.

Study profile of patients of Bundelkhand region Presenting with low vision

“…This depiction of ayounger population is similar to findings from Malaysia [14], Korea [6], Nepal [15], and India [16] in which theproportion of patients aged below 50 years were 74%,69%, 58% and 68% respectively. In these developingcountries, the proportion of low vision patients aged60 years and above ranged between 16% and 26%.On the other hand, in studies from developed countries,Leat and Rumney [17] (United Kingdom) found77% of their patients to be aged 60 years and above; Elliotet al [11] (Canada) reported that 66% of patientswere 70 years or older; while in Australia, Wolffsohnand Cochrane [12] observed that 87% of patients wereaged 60 years and above.…”

“…Thus, theyare prone to sampling errors and are limited in their extrapolationto the general population [13]. Notwithstanding,the information obtained from such studiescan be very useful for planning low vision services, activecare and rehabilitation [6].The age distribution of our patients is different fromprevious reports from developed countries but is similarto those from other developing countries.…”

“…Majority of our patients considered their problemswith near and distance vision to be of equal importance.However, elderly patients were more likely to deem nearvision as being their major problem; while children hada tendency to judge distance vision as more important.This observation perhaps portrays the additional effectof presbyopia on low vision in the elderly, although itmay also signify that the elderly have a greater likelihoodof central visual loss from macular disease.Posterior segment disease accounted for the majorityof causes of low vision in this study. This correlates withfindings of most low vision clinic studies [6,11,12,[14][15][16][17].In our study,the commonestcause was ARMD which is similar to some previous reports who found age related macular degeneration (ARMD) to bethe commonest cause [11,12,17,18].Besides, there are other reports,specifically from developing countries, in which ARMDwas also not the commonest cause [6,[14][15][16]. Possiblereasons for lower prevalence of ARMD in developingcountries may include nutritional factors, less cigarettesmoking, and lower body mass index (BMI) [21].…”

“…It is an important public health problem [6]; and provision of low vision services is one of the priorities in the global initiative, VISION 2020-The Right to Sight [2,7].It is important to collect and analyse clinical data from patients with functional low vision in order to deliver appropriate low vision care. This study is carried out to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients presenting with low vision in our hospital.…”

Etiological Evaluation of Patients Who Have Low Vision Aid in Our Region

“…Ülkelerin kendi en sık tanılarını ortaya koyması, önlenebilir nedenlerin belirlenmesi ve gerekli sağlık planlamalarının yapılabilmesi açısından önem taşımak-tadır. [14][15][16] Bu çalışmada, Özel Nivgöz Merkezi'ne az görme nedeni ile refere edilen hastalarda en sık gö-rülen tanıların saptanması, bu tanıların literatür ile karşılaştırılması ve bu çalışma ile ülkemizdeki epidemiyolojik çalışmalara katkı sağlanması amaçlan-mıştır.…”