title: Blindness in adolescents in Israel.
abstract: Adolescents with blindness or visual impairment, in order to go through the trying time of adolescence, require extra strength to overcome their disability. This short communication looks at prevalence data for blindness in children and adolescents that range from about 3 per 10,000 children in developed countries (60 blind children per million total population) to 15 per 10,000 in the poorest countries (600 blind children per million total population). Data from the year 2000 in Israel showed a total of 18,509 persons with blindness registered in Israel, including 168 children between the age 0-5 years and 788 between 6-18 years. Children and adolescents comprised 5.2% of the total with a small male dominance (520 males, 436 females). The total prevalence rate for children and adolescents (0-18 years) in Israel was 4.5 per 10,000 and 5.3 per 10,000 for the 6-18 year olds. The causes of blindness for children and adolescents in Israel are also presented, with optic atrophy the most common cause.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Office of the Medical Director, Division for Mental Retardation, Ministry of Social Affairs, Jerusalem, Israel. jmerrick@aquanet.co.il
authors.forename: Joav
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Merrick
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bergwerk
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morad
authors.forename: Eli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carmeli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001766:Blindness / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence