title: Reconsideration of the most appropriate criterion in the lowest classification of vision disability in Japan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To verify the current Japanese classification of vision disability in regard to visual acuity.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was sent to 100 ophthalmology services in Japan. Each service was asked to extract 300 of their outpatient records. From these records, patients who had a sum of corrected visual acuity in both eyes of less than or equal to 0.62 were selected for the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of items related to prevalence, age, sex, with or without vision-disabled certification at any grade, the corrected visual acuity of each eye and the name of any disease the subject may have had.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty-five services responded, and, of 20,235 total records reviewed, 971 patients were eligible for the questionnaire. The average age was 66.9 ± 20.0 years, and 74.6% were over 60 years old. The distribution of corrected visual acuity showed three categories.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our analysis indicates that a new candidate criterion for vision-disabled certification is needed for the sixth grade, which, at present is defined as, "The sum of the corrected visual acuity of both eyes is more than 0.2, but less than or equal to 0.4."
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Hospital of National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities, 4-1, Namiki, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan. nishida-tomomi@rehab.go.jp
authors.forename: Tomomi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishida
authors.forename: Noburo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ando
authors.forename: Kazushige
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sado
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakadomari
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001766:Blindness / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D002568:Certification; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015354:Vision, Low / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D014792:Visual Acuity; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000145:classification*; D055815:Young Adult