title: The prevalence and causes of visual impairment in young Turkish men.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the causes and prevalence of visual impairment in young Turkish men.
  
  
  METHODS
  The health examination data of the candidates that are saved in National Defense Ministry of Turkey was used. The data of the candidates examined between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2011 were evaluated. The total number of the candidates was 1777500. The candidates requiring advanced examination are referred to secondary and tertiary examination hospitals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fourteen thousand eight hundred sixty two(14862) out of 1777500 candidates were declared unfit for compulsory military service because of ophthalmic causes. The prevalence of ophthalmologic diseases causing unfitness for military service was found 0.746% for 2009, 0.871% for 2010 and 0.889% for 2011. These included high refractive errors which was the most frequent pathology causing unfitness (40.1%). Nonsurgical retina, vitreous and optic nerve diseases were the most frequent cause of visual impairment (0.212%). Corneal and lens pathologies were the second most frequent cause of blindness (0.101%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data bank in National Defense Ministry analyzed in this study is not directly intended to explore the causes and prevalence of visual impairment in Turkey. However this study gives considerable knowledge about the causes and prevalence of visual impairment in Turkey.
authors.affiliation: Fatih Cakir Gundogan, Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, GATA Military Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Fatih Cakir
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Gundogan
authors.affiliation: Necmettin Kocak, MD Turkish Coast Guard Command, Health Care Department, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Necmettin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kocak
authors.affiliation: Ramazan Akyildiz, MD Turkish Coast Guard Command, Health Care Department, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ramazan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Akyildiz
authors.affiliation: Umit Yolcu, MD Sarikamis Military Hospital, Department of Ophthalmology, Siirt, Turkey.
authors.forename: Umit
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Yolcu
authors.affiliation: Abdullah Ilhan, MD Erzurum Military Hospital, Department of Ophthalmology, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ilhan
authors.affiliation: Ibrahim Aydin, MD Sarikamis Military Hospital, Department of Biochemistry, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ibrahim
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Aydin
authors.affiliation: Selim Kilic, Professor, Department of Public Health, GATA Military Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Selim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kilic
keywords: High refractive errors; Nonsurgical retina; Optic nerve diseases; Visual impairment