Ocular findings among young men: a 12‐year prevalence study of military service in Poland

Abstract

ABSTRACT.Purpose: To determine the prevalence of ocular diseases among young men and to assess the main ocular causes reflecting discharge from military service in Poland. Methods: A retrospective review of the medical records of 105 017 men undergoing a preliminary examination for military service during the period 1993-2004. Sample size for the study was calculated with 99% confidence within an error margin of 5%. All of the study participants were White men of European origin, most of whom live or lived in Poland. Data regarding the vision status were assessed in 1938 eyes of 969 participants. Two groups were distinguished based on the age of the participants: group I aged 18-24 years, and group II aged 25-34 years. Results: Presented visual impairment [visual acuity (VA) < 20 ⁄ 40)] followed by colour vision defects were the most common ocular disorders, accounting for 13.2%. There were statistically significant differences in uncorrected VA as well as in the rates of particular refractive errors in between the age groups (p < 0.05). The prevalence of glaucoma and ocular hypertension was significantly higher in older participants. Six hundred and sixty-seven (68.8%) participants examined medically in the study period were accepted for military service. However, 302 (31.2%) failed their examination and were temporarily or permanently discharged from duty. Fifty-two of them (17.2%) were discharged because of various ocular disorders. The most common causes were high refractive errors, which accounted for 38.5% of all the ocular discharges, followed by chronic and recurrent diseases of the posterior segment of the eye, which accounted for 19.2%. Conclusion: The prevalence of ocular disorders among young men in an unselected military population was closer to the results obtained in other population-based studies comprising both men and women in the same age group. High refractive errors followed by chronic and recurrent diseases of the posterior segment of the eye are important causes of medical discharges from military service in Poland.

Population-Based Screening of Ophthalmic Disorders in a Cohort of Nigerian Army Personnel

“…Ocular health in military populations has important implications for recruit eligibility [1,2] optimal job performance [2], permanent or temporary medical discharge [2] and deployment-related safety [3,4]. Occular health encompasses both visual readiness (the presence of minimum job-required visual acuity) and optical readiness (the acquisition of appropriate optical correction) [5].…”

“…Occular health encompasses both visual readiness (the presence of minimum job-required visual acuity) and optical readiness (the acquisition of appropriate optical correction) [5]. Previous military ocular health surveys, including pre-recruitment [6] and in-service screening eye examinations [2,5,7,8] have reported a huge range in the prevalence of ophthalmic disorders in various military populations (5-83%). The wide variations in reported prevalence have been attributed to differences in the description of specific ophthalmic disorders [1,2], differences in the sources of data (ranging from military health records to screening eye examinations) [1,2,4,6,9,10] and differences in measured ocular health criteria [2].…”

Characteristics of Refractive Errors in a Population of Adults in the Central Region of Poland

“…Because the present study was a continuation of our previous reports as mentioned earlier 5 we used the methodology of refraction measurements and definitions of refractive errors from the Polish Army national regulations for ophthalmic examination [29,30].…”

“…After allowing for an arbitrary 50% increase in sample size to accommodate possible inefficiencies associated with the sample design, the sample size requirement increased to 991 subjects [6,28]. We decided to define an older adult as person aged ≥ 35 years because in our previous reports conducted on young males in the military population, we considered young adult as person aged 18-34 years [29,30]. We used simple systematic sampling to select our study population.…”

“…Spherical equivalent (SER) refractive error, defined as sphere plus half cylinder, was applied for myopia and hyperopia calculations. According to the Polish Army regulations myopia was Astigmatism was considered if the cylinder was ≥ 0.5 dioptres [29,30]. Anisometropia was defined as difference of SER greater than 1.0 dioptres (D) between the right and the left eyes.…”