title: Work and disability at the age of 30 years. A sociomedical study of a birth-cohort from Bergen. VIII. Visual impairment; frequency and relation to school background, intellectual ability and encephalopathy.
abstract: The study is based on a cohort of 1570 persons consisting of all live births in 1940 of mothers then residing in Bergen. A sample was taken of the cohort after stratification according to type of school attended at the age of 14 years. The sample was supplemented with persons who had either attended Special Schools for the educable mentally retarded or received care from National Services for the mentally retarded. The final sample consisted of 262 persons. Persons in the sample were examined neurologically, and the results of these examinations formed the basis for further ophthalmological examinations. Frequency of visual impairment in the cohort at the age of 30 years, according to relatively strict criterion, is estimated at 4.6% +/- 2.0 %. Frequency was found to increase with a lower level of education (type of school) and decreasing IQ-points. Pathology of the eye was found most frequently among members of the services for the mentally retarded and was associated with encephalopathy.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003638:Deafness / Q000453:epidemiology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000150:complications; D007360:Intelligence; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013285:Strabismus / Q000453:epidemiology; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014792:Visual Acuity