[New blindness incidents in Württemberg-Hohenzollern].
Blindness causes human suffering and high social costs. Preventive measures are necessary. Virtually all blind people are registered with the social services. Data from these institutions may help in (long-term) planning for blindness prevention.


METHODS
The present investigation analysed data from the social services of the region Württemberg-Hohenzollern. The files contained information on ocular status, year of birth, district, and sex of newly blind subjects of the year 1994.


RESULTS
Two thirds (66.8%) of newly blind subjects are women. About half (47.8%) of all subjects are over 80 years of age. The most frequent causes of blindness are: macular degeneration, 33.7%; diabetic retinopathy, 17.3%; glaucoma, 13.8%; and high myopia, 6.6%.


CONCLUSIONS
Blindness is increasingly a problem of high age. Diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma are still major causes of blindness. For these diseases blindness prevention is conceivable. Thus co-ordinated blindness prevention activities should focus on diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.
Krumpaszky
H G
HG
Institut für Medizinische Informationsverarbeitung, Tübingen.
Haas
A
A
Klauss
V
V
Selbmann
H K
HK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001766:Blindness / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012307:Risk Factors