Visual impairment and related factors in Afghanistan ·Investigation· Prevalence of visual impairment and related factors in Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan: a cross sectional study Mohammad Haris Abdianwall1, Bahar Güçiz Doğan2 1Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, burden of VI and blindness in the study area as well as the Nangarhar University, Jalalabad GPO 2601, Afghanistan whole country, it is strongly recommended to apply the 2 Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe prevention policies of VI and blindness. University, Ankara 06100, Turkey ● KEYWORDS: prevalence; visual impairment; blindness; Correspondence to: Mohammad Haris Abdianwall. Afghanistan Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, DOI:10.18240/ijo.2018.12.16 Nangarhar University, Jalalabad GPO 2601, Afghanistan.
[email protected] Citation: Abdianwall MH, Güçiz Doğan B. Prevalence of visual Received: 2018-03-16 Accepted: 2018-08-22 impairment and related factors in Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan: a cross sectional study. Int J Ophthalmol 2018;11(12):1968-1977 Abstract ● AIM: To determine the prevalence, main causes, and INTRODUCTION related factors of visual impairment (VI) among people isual impairment (VI) and blindness are worldwide, aged 50y and over in Jalalabad City and four surrounding V social, economic and public health problems especially districts of Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. for developing countries[1]. There are 285 million people living ● METHODS: The data for the population based cross- with VI worldwide (246 million low vision and 39 million sectional study was collected in 2015. The calculated blind); 63% of low vision and 82% of blind people were aged sample size was 1353, allocated to urban-rural strata 50y and over[2].