title: Trends in the incidence and causes of severe visual impairment and blindness in children from Israel.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe trends in the incidence and causes of legal childhood blindness in Israel, one of the few countries worldwide that maintain a national registry of the blind.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a historical cohort study of annual reports of the National Registry of the Blind (NRB) between 1999 and 2013. All data regarding demographic information, year of registration and cause of blindness of children 0-18 years of age registered for blind certification were obtained from the annual reports of the NRB. Causes of legal blindness analyzed were optic atrophy, retinitis pigmentosa, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), albinism, other retinal disorders, cataract, and glaucoma. The main outcome measure was the incidence of new cases of certified legal blindness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The incidence of newly registered legally blind children in Israel almost halved from 7.7 per 100,000 in 1999 to 3.1 per 100,000 in 2013. The decline was mainly attributable to a decreased incidence of blindness resulting from retinitis pigmentosa and ROP. The incidence of registered cases due to cerebral visual impairment increased.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  During the past decade the incidence of severe childhood visual impairment and blindness declined in Israel. A continuous decline in consanguineous marriages among the Jewish and Arab populations in Israel may have contributed to the decrease in the rate of vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa in children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel; Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Electronic address: emezer@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Eedy
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mezer
authors.affiliation: Unit of Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chetrit
authors.affiliation: Unit of Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research, Tel Hashomer, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Ofra
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kalter-Leibovici
authors.affiliation: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; The Goldschleger Eye Institute, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kinori
authors.affiliation: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; The Goldschleger Eye Institute, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors.forename: Itay
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ben-Zion
authors.affiliation: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; The Goldschleger Eye Institute, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wygnanski-Jaffe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D016117:Albinism, Ocular / Q000453:epidemiology; D001766:Blindness / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002386:Cataract / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005901:Glaucoma / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009896:Optic Atrophy / Q000453:epidemiology; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012174:Retinitis Pigmentosa / Q000453:epidemiology; D012178:Retinopathy of Prematurity / Q000453:epidemiology; D015354:Vision, Low / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*