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PubMed2003

Corneal blindness: a global perspective.

Diseases affecting the cornea are a major cause of blindness worldwide, second only to cataract in overall importance. The epidemiology of corneal blindness is complicated and encompasses a wide variety of infectious and inflammatory eye diseses that cause corneal scarring, which ultimately leads to functional blindness. In addition, the prevalence of corneal disease varies from country to country and even from one population to another. While cataract is responsible for nearly 20 million of the 45 million blind people in the world, the next major cause is trachoma which blinds 4.9 million individuals, mainly as a result of corneal scarring and vascularization. Ocular trauma and corneal ulceration are significant causes of corneal blindness that are often underreported but may be responsible for 1.5-2.0 million new cases of monocular blindness every year. Causes of childhood blindness (about 1.5 million worldwide with 5 million visually disabled) include xerophthalmia (350,000 cases annually), ophthalmia neonatorum, and less frequently seen ocular diseases such as herpes simplex virus infections and vernal keratoconjunctivitis. Even though the control of onchocerciasis and leprosy are public health success stories, these diseases are still significant causes of blindness--affecting a quarter of a million individuals each. Traditional eye medicines have also been implicated as a major risk factor in the current epidemic of corneal ulceration in developing countries. Because of the difficulty of treating corneal blindness once it has occurred, public health prevention programmes are the most cost-effective means of decreasing the global burden of corneal blindness.

Blindness↗
PubMed2001

[Inquiries about methods of primary eye care and prevention of blindness].

OBJECTIVE: To inquire about the methods of developing primary eye care (PEC) and prevention of blindness. METHODS: The methods of developing PEC and prevention of blindness in recent 10 years were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: Five grades of PEC network were established. The training courses 1 007 times were held in Nantong, and the epidemiological survey of the blind was carried out for 6 817 259 people. The blind persons were 13 496 in number, and the prevalence of blindness was 0.20%. Cataract operations were performed on 83.16% of the treatable cataract blind persons. The successful rate of cataract surgery was 98.22%. Eight counties became the national advanced counties of prevention of blindness. Nantong city became the first national advanced city of prevention of blindness in 1997. CONCLUSIONS: PEC is the basis of prevention of blindness. To bring PEC into line with the primary health care (PHC) is the key point of developing PEC. Affordable operation, promising quality of the operative procedure and combination of survey and treatment are the three essential factors of developing PEC and prevention of blindness. To create national advanced county and city is the motive force of developing prevention of blindness.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Cortical representation of space around the blind spot.

The neural mechanism that mediates perceptual filling-in of the blind spot is still under discussion. One hypothesis proposes that the cortical representation of the blind spot is activated only under conditions that elicit perceptual filling-in and requires congruent stimulation on both sides of the blind spot. Alternatively, the passive remapping hypothesis proposes that inputs from regions surrounding the blind spot infiltrate the representation of the blind spot in cortex. This theory predicts that independent stimuli presented to the left and right of the blind spot should lead to neighboring/overlapping activations in visual cortex when the blind-spot eye is stimulated but separated activations when the fellow eye is stimulated. Using functional MRI, we directly tested the remapping hypothesis by presenting flickering checkerboard wedges to the left or right of the spatial location of the blind spot, either to the blind-spot eye or to the fellow eye. Irrespective of which eye was stimulated, we found separate activations corresponding to the left and right wedges. We identified the centroid of the activations on a cortical flat map and measured the distance between activations. Distance measures of the cortical gap across the blind spot were accurate and reliable (mean distance: 6-8 mm across subjects, SD approximately 1 mm within subjects). Contrary to the predictions of the remapping hypothesis, cortical distances between activations to the two wedges were equally large for the blind-spot eye and fellow eye in areas V1 and V2/V3. Remapping therefore appears unlikely to account for perceptual filling-in at an early cortical level.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Night blindness during pregnancy and subsequent mortality among women in Nepal: effects of vitamin A and beta-carotene supplementation.

Night blindness due to vitamin A deficiency is common during pregnancy among women in Nepal. The authors assessed the risk of maternal death during and after a pregnancy with night blindness among women participating in a cluster-randomized, placebo-controlled vitamin A and beta-carotene supplementation trial in Nepal from July 1994 to September 1997. Subjects were 877 women with night blindness and 9,545 women without night blindness during pregnancy. Women were followed from the time they declared that they were pregnant through the end of the study, representing a median follow-up of 90 weeks (interquartile range: 64-121 weeks). Mortality of night-blind women in the placebo group was 3,601 per 100,000 pregnancies. In comparison, the relative risk of dying among nonnight-blind women in the placebo group was 0.26 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.13, 0.55), and the relative risk among women with or without night blindness in the vitamin A/beta-carotene group was 0.32 (95% CI: 0.10, 0.91) and 0.18 (95% CI: 0.09, 0.36), respectively. Night-blind women were five times (95% CI: 2.20, 10.58) more likely to die from infections than were women who were not night blind. These findings show that night blindness during pregnancy is a risk factor of both short- and long-term mortality among women. Vitamin A/beta-carotene supplementation ameliorates this risk to a large extent.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

The double-blind variable placebo lead-in period: results from two antidepressant clinical trials.

The 1-week single-blind placebo lead-in has long been a standard in double-blind psychopharmacology clinical trials. Although a lead-in period is often necessary (e.g., to receive laboratory results before randomization), some authors have demonstrated that the standard single-blind placebo lead-in's performance was similar to having a lead-in in which placebo was not administered. The single-blind placebo lead-in did not decrease postrandomization placebo response, nor did it increase drug-placebo differences. To eliminate a higher percentage of placebo responders before randomization and to reduce potential biases in baseline ratings, the authors designed and implemented two depression studies with a double-blind variable placebo lead-in period. In these designs, both the patients and personnel at the investigative sites were blinded to the length of the placebo lead-in period and the start of the active treatment period. Approximately 28% of the patients in the double-blind placebo lead-in studies met criteria to be placebo lead-in responders, as compared with fewer than 10% from two single-blind placebo lead-in studies conducted in a similar time frame. Although all patients continued in the study (including placebo lead-in responders), the primary efficacy analysis prospectively excluded double-blind placebo lead-in responders. Analysis of postrandomization changes revealed that double-blind placebo lead-in responders, even when continuing to receive placebo treatment, maintained their response. At the study endpoint, these placebo lead-in responders had significantly lower severity scores than their counterparts who were not lead-in responders. The prospective removal of lead-in responders thus resulted in an increase in mean endpoint placebo group severity scores. This resulted in an increased drug-placebo treatment difference in one of the two studies but had no effect on the treatment difference in the other study.

Antidepressive Agents↗
PubMed1999

Period of susceptibility for cross-modal plasticity in the blind.

Cross-modal plasticity in blind subjects contributes to sensory compensation when vision is lost early in life, but it is not known if it does so when visual loss occurs at an older age. We used H2(15)O positron emission tomography to identify cerebral regions activated in association with Braille reading, and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to induce focal transient disruption of function during Braille reading, in 8 subjects who became blind after age 14 years (late-onset blind), after a lengthy period of normal vision. Results were compared with those previously reported obtained from congenitally and early-onset blind subjects. As shown by H2(15)O positron emission tomographic scanning, the occipital cortex was strongly activated in the congenitally blind and early-onset blind groups but not in the late-onset blind group. Occipital repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation disrupted the Braille reading task in congenitally blind and early-onset blind subjects but not in late-onset blind subjects. These results indicate that the susceptible period for this form of functionally relevant cross-modal plasticity does not extend beyond 14 years.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

[New blindness incidents in Württemberg-Hohenzollern].

UNLABELLED: Blindness causes human suffering and high social costs. Preventive measures are necessary. Virtually all blind people are registered with the social services. Data from these institutions may help in (long-term) planning for blindness prevention. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The present investigation analysed data from the social services of the region Württemberg-Hohenzollern. The files contained information on ocular status, year of birth, district, and sex of newly blind subjects of the year 1994. RESULTS: Two thirds (66.8%) of newly blind subjects are women. About half (47.8%) of all subjects are over 80 years of age. The most frequent causes of blindness are: macular degeneration, 33.7%; diabetic retinopathy, 17.3%; glaucoma, 13.8%; and high myopia, 6.6%. CONCLUSIONS: Blindness is increasingly a problem of high age. Diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma are still major causes of blindness. For these diseases blindness prevention is conceivable. Thus co-ordinated blindness prevention activities should focus on diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Cataract: the leading cause of blindness and vision loss in Africa.

Senile cataract is a non-preventable disease of aging, having its biggest impact in the over-60 age group. Published clinic and hospital data, population-based surveys and World Health Organization estimates indicate that 1.2% of the entire population of Africa is blind, and that cataract causes 36% of this blindness. Ocular disease and ophthalmic manpower status questionnaires mailed to every African country in 1982 by the International Eye Foundation support these contentions, and further demonstrate that cataract is the biggest single cause of blindness on the continent. Taking the population of Africa as a whole, this means that 6,000,000 people are blind, and that 2,000,000 of them are blind due to cataract. As this form of blindness is so closely related to aging, an estimate of the annual incidence of the condition can be made. One method is to use the formula I = P/D, where I = annual incidence, P = overall prevalence and D = duration of the condition. A 5-year survival has come to be a commonly used estimate in developing world epidemiology for the longevity of a person who becomes blind due to senile onset cataracts. In Africa then, I = P/D = 2,000,000/5 = 400,000 people blinded annually by cataract. An alternate method for this computation is to multiply the number of people entering the 60 and above age group annually by 0.08. This factor is derived from knowing the prevalence of cataract blindness in this age group, the life expectancy on becoming 60, and the number of people turning 60 annually. This gives an annual incidence of 160,000 and would signify that the development of cataract blindness does not reduce longevity. Follow-up prevalence surveys in the same population group will tell us which method (if either) is correct. The average number of cataract operations done annually by each ophthalmologist in Africa is surprisingly low, 120. The two most cost-effective ways of raising the number of cases done are: (1) shorten the average hospital stay, and (2) train more ophthalmic clinical officers to perform cataract surgery.

Africa↗
PubMed2004

Assessment of blinding in clinical trials.

Success of blinding is a fundamental issue in many clinical trials. The validity of a trial may be questioned if this important assumption is violated. Although thousands of ostensibly double-blind trials are conducted annually and investigators acknowledge the importance of blinding, attempts to measure the effectiveness of blinding are rarely discussed. Several published papers proposed ways to evaluate the success of blinding, but none of the methods are commonly used or regarded as standard. This paper investigates a new approach to assess the success of blinding in clinical trials. The blinding index proposed is scaled to an interval of -1 to 1, 1 being complete lack of blinding, 0 being consistent with perfect blinding and -1 indicating opposite guessing which may be related to unblinding. It has the ability to detect a relatively low degree of blinding, response bias and different behaviors in two arms. The proposed method is applied to a clinical trial of cholesterol-lowering medication in a group of elderly people.

Aged↗
PubMed2004

Transdermal buprenorphine in the treatment of chronic pain: results of a phase III, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

BACKGROUND: Buprenorphine, a potent opioid analgesic, has been available in parenteral and oral or sublingual(SL) formulations for >25 years. In 2001, the buprenorphine transdermal delivery system (TES) was introduced at 3 release rates (35, 52.5, and 70 microg/h) for the treatment of chronic cancer and noncancer pain. OBJECTIVE: This study compared the analgesic efficacy and tolerability of buprenorphine TES at a release rate of 35 microg/h with those of buprenorphine SL and placebo in patients with severe or very severe chronic cancer or noncancer pain. METHODS: This multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial was 1 of 3 Phase III studies involved in the clinical development of buprenorphine TDS. It comprised a 6-day open-label run-in phase in which patients received buprenorphine SL 0.8 to 1.6 mg/d as needed and a double-blind phase in which patients were randomized to receive 3 sequential patches containing buprenorphine TES 35 microg/h or placebo, each lasting 72 hours. Rescue analgesia consisting of buprenorphine SL 02-mg tablets was available as needed throughout the double-blind phase. The main outcome measures were (1) the number of buprenorphine SL tablets required in addition to buprenorphine TES during the double-blind phase compared with the placebo group and compared with the buprenorphine SL requirement during the run-in phase, and (2) patients' assessments of pain intensity, pain relief, and duration of sleep uninterrupted by pain in the double-blind phase compared with the run-in phase. Adverse events were documented throughout the study. RESULTS: One hundred thirty-seven patients were included in the double-blind phase (90 buprenorphine TES, 47 placebo). The buprenorphine TES group included 47 men and 43 women (mean [SD] age, 56.0 [12.1] years), and the placebo group included 23 men and 24 women (mean age, 55.7 [12.9] years). Forty-five patients had cancer-related pain and 92 had noncancer-related pain. The 2 treatment groups were comparable with respect to sex distribution, age, height, and body weight Patients receiving buprenorphine TES significantly reduced their consumption of buprenorphine SL tablets in the double-blind phase compared with patients receiving placebo (reduction of 0.6 [0.4] mg vs 0.4 [0.4] mg; P = 0.03). The relationship between the buprenorphine SL dose in the run-in phase and the number of buprenorphine SL tablets required in the double-blind phase was dose dependent in the active-treatment group only. Patients' assessments of pain intensity and pain relief suggested better analgesia with buprenorphine TES than with placebo, although the differences did not reach statistical significance. The proportion of patients who reported sleeping for >6 hours uninterrupted by pain in the double-blind phase compared with the run-in phase increased by 6.4% in the buprenorphine TDS group (35.6% vs 292%, respectively), compared with a decrease of 5.9% in the placebo group (40.4% vs 463%); no statistical analysis of sleep duration data was performed. Buprenorphine TDS was well tolerated, with adverse events generally similar to those associated with other opioids. The incidence of systemic adverse events in the double-blind phase was similar in the 2 treatment groups (28.9% buprenorphine TDS, 27.6% placebo), with the most common adverse events being nausea, dizziness, and vomiting. After patch removal, skin reactions (mainly mild or moderate pruritus and erythema) were seen in 35.6% of the buprenorphine TDS group and 25.5% of the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS: In the population studied, buprenorphine TDS provided adequate pain relief, as well as improvements in pain intensity and duration of pain-free sleep. It may be considered a therapeutic option for the treatment of moderate to severe chronic pain.

Administration, Cutaneous↗
PubMed2005

Symbolic play in congenitally blind children.

There is controversy over the existence and nature of blind children's limitations in symbolic play. In this study we tested 13 5- to 9-year-old congenitally blind children for the ability to symbolize when an adult provided scaffolding for their play. The blind children were selected on the basis that they did not have the syndrome of autism, and they comprised two groups matched for age (MA) and verbal ability on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children who contrasted in their ability to engage in social relations. We also tested a group of sighted children who were MA matched with the more socially able blind children. On the basis of an hypothesis about the social-developmental sources of symbolic play deficits in congenitally blind children, we predicted differences between the socially able and socially impaired groups of blind children in the following respects: the attribution of symbolic meanings to play materials, the ascription of individual roles to play figures, and the anchorage of play in the scenario as presented by the adult. The results accorded with these predictions. Whereas the more socially able blind children showed symbolic play that was very similar to that of sighted children, the MA- and IQ-matched socially impaired blind children were limited in the three aspects of their play. On the other hand, even the socially impaired children showed instances of symbolizing. The findings suggest a way to reconcile conflicting reports of symbolic play deficits in young blind children, and may be relevant for explaining the association between autism and congenital blindness.

Affect↗
PubMed2001

Causes of blindness in Northern Tanzania: a hospital and rural health centre based study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the main causes of blindness in Northern Tanzania. METHODS: Ophthalmic patients at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre and on outreach clinics in the Kilimanjaro region of Northern Tanzania were examined. The cause of blindness was documented for any eye seeing less than 3/60 Snellen. If more than one factor contributed to the visual loss, the single factor deemed to be the most visually disabling was documented. RESULTS: 1045 blind eyes of 781 patients were examined. 264 patients were bilaterally blind. The main cause of bilateral blindness was cataract [39%]. The other chief causes of blindness were glaucoma, trauma and corneal scarring. The most important cause of corneal scarring, approximately half the cases, was microbial keratitis. Refractive error alone was responsible for 4.2% of bilateral blindness, of which 2.7% was uncorrected post-cataract surgery aphakia. CONCLUSIONS: Treatable causes of blindness, including cataract and refractive error account for over a third of all blindness in Northern Tanzania. Trauma, glaucoma and microbial keratitis are other important causes of blindness in the region.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Registered blindness and low vision in Kuwait.

AIM: To estimate the incidence rates and major causes of registered blindness and low vision in Kuwait. METHODS: Data on age, gender and cause of blindness and low vision were collected from the Visual Disability Committee while evaluating Kuwaiti citizens applying for a blindness allowance from January 2000 to December 2004. Criteria for legal blindness in Kuwait are visual acuity 6/60 or less in the better eye with best possible correction or a visual field less than 20 degrees around the central fixation point. Incidence rates per 100,000 person years of observation were calculated for both genders in four age subgroups and four severity categories. The causes of registered blindness were classified according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition. RESULTS: 412 persons were registered as blind, 272 males (66.01%) and 140 females (33.98%), mean age 28.7 +/-25.2 years, 39.32% below 20 years of age, 31.79% 21-40 years, 18.68% 41-60 years, and 9.95% 61 years and over . Male gender was prevalent for all age subgroups. The overall incidence rate was 9.97 per 100,000 person years of observation, 13.33 for the male and 6.69 for the female patients. The incidence rates rose from 7.35 for those 20 years and younger to 14.80 for the age subgroup 41-60 and 23.16 for those 61 years and above. The rates of severe visual impairment classified in categories 4 and 5 were higher than the rates for categories 2 and 3. Retinitis pigmentosa was the leading cause of blindness, followed by congenital anomalies and optic atrophy. In the subgroup below 20 the rate of optic atrophy was highest, followed by congenital malformations, retinitis pigmentosa and retinopathy of prematurity. In the next age subgroup (21-40 years), the rate of retinitis pigmentosa was three times as high as in the younger subgroup, followed by optic atrophy, congenital malformations and albinism. In the subgroup 41-60 the incidence rate for phthisis bulbi was twice as high as the rates for retinitis pigmentosa and optic atrophy. For those 61 years and older, the incidence rate of phthisis bulbi was almost five times as high as that for optic atrophy. The incidence rates for the male patients were higher for the major causes of disability in all age subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: The overall incidence rate of registered blindness for Kuwait is less than in many other national registries. The marked prevalence of the male gender in all age subgroups is specific for Kuwait. The rates of the leading causes of registered blindness reflect the prevalence of the younger subgroups in our registry. Additional data on co-morbidity and dedicated efforts to reveal unrecognized and unregistered blindness, particularly among females, will overcome the limitations of the registry, and will serve to outline the tendencies in avoidable vision loss and monitor the efficacy of the prevention programs in the future.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Blindness and low vision in Cape Verde Islands: results of a national eye survey.

AIMS: Prior to establishing a national prevention of blindness program a population based survey was conducted in Cape Verde Islands in1998. The objectives of the survey were to estimate the overall and age-specific prevalence of blindness and low vision, to identify the main disorders causing blindness and low vision, and to estimate the population need for basic eye care services. METHODS: A two-level cluster random sampling procedure was used, selecting 30 clusters from the nine inhabited islands and 3,803 persons of all ages were included in the sample. RESULTS: 3,374 persons were examined (coverage 88.7%). The prevalence of bilateral blindness (visual acuity in the better eye less than 3/60) was 0.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.5-1.1), of bilateral low vision (6/18 to 3/60 in the better eye) 1.7% (95% CI: 1.3-2.2) and of monocular blindness 1.5% (95% CI: 1.2-2.0). The major causes of blindness were age related cataract and glaucoma (57.7% and 15.4%, respectively, of blind people recruited). The major causes of bilateral low vision were cataract, refractive errors, and macular disorders (46.2%, 26.8%, and 8.9%, respectively, of persons with low vision). Nontrachomatous corneal opacities accounted for 7.7% of bilateral and for 11.5% of monocular blindness. Vascular retinopathy was responsible for 7.7% of bilateral and for 9.6% of monocular blindness. Trachoma is not a public health problem as only 2.3% of children less than 10 years of age were suffering from active trachoma. Palpebral or limbal vernal conjunctivitis were encountered in 4.5% of persons under 25. CONCLUSION: More than half of the visual impairments are treatable by provision of cataract surgery and cataract has been indicated as a priority target in the recently designed National Blindness Program of the Cape Verde Republic. Pathologic conditions such as diabetes are emerging as serious burden for ageing populations and account for most of the retinal vascular disease.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Incidence of blindness during the Onchocerciasis control programme in western Africa, 1971-2002.

BACKGROUND: Infection with Onchocerca volvulus is associated with the prevalence of severe visual impairment and blindness. However, longitudinal studies of the incidence of blindness caused by onchocerciasis are scarce. METHODS: The relationship, at the individual level, between infection with O. volvulus microfilariae and bilateral blindness was examined, by use of data collected, during the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in western Africa (OCP), from 2315 villages in 11 countries. The data were analyzed by Poisson maximum-likelihood techniques with adjustment for overdispersion. RESULTS: A total of 297,756 persons were eligible for follow-up in the cohort, and, during 1971-2001, these persons accumulated 367,788 person-years of follow-up without blindness. A total of 673 bilateral cases of blindness occurred during this period; 29.7% were caused by onchocerciasis. After ivermectin therapy was introduced (during 1988-2001), only 19.6% of cases were caused by onchocerciasis. The incidence of blindness was significantly and positively associated with increasing microfilarial burden (P<.001). Overall, female subjects had an ~40% lower risk of becoming blind than did male subjects (P<.001). After an initially high incidence of blindness at the beginning of the OCP, the rate of blindness from causes other than onchocerciasis remained approximately constant during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate, in a comprehensive data set and in both sexes, a direct relationship between microfilarial load and the incidence of blindness.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Recommendations for indicators: night blindness during pregnancy--a simple tool to assess vitamin A deficiency in a population.

Night blindness during pregnancy caused by vitamin A deficiency is associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality among women. Because a history of maternal night blindness is simple and reliable to use, it is recommended as a population-based indicator of vitamin A deficiency. Furthermore, a maternal night blindness prevalence of >/=5% is recommended as a cut-off at which vitamin A deficiency may be considered to be a problem of public health significance within the community. This paper provides the justification for these recommendations. Night blindness during pregnancy is strongly associated with low serum and breast milk vitamin A concentration, abnormal conjunctival impression cytology and impaired dark adaptation, which suggests that it is a valid indicator of vitamin A deficiency. The prevalence of night blindness during pregnancy tends to be high in countries where the prevalence of xerophthalmia in children is high and in countries where interventions are in place to reduce childhood vitamin A deficiency. Existing data suggest that misclassification of self-reported maternal night blindness may account for a prevalence of up to 3%. The suggested cut-off, 5%, is set higher than this potential level of false-positive prevalence (3%). Illustrative data from India and Cambodia on childhood xerophthalmia and maternal night blindness rates are used to demonstrate the validity of using a 5% prevalence of maternal night blindness as indicative of a community vitamin A deficiency problem. Finally, it is recommended that night blindness history be elicited for a previous pregnancy that ended in a live birth in the past 3 y, using the local term for night blindness whenever possible.

Asia↗
PubMed1979

Periodontal disease and oral hygiene in a group of blind and sighted Israeli teenagers (14--17 years of age.

The purpose of the present study was to obtain up-to-date information on periodontal disease and oral hygiene status in Israel among 9th to 12th grade non-blind students and among the inmates of six schools for the blind aged 14--17 years. 460 sighted and 434 blind students participated in the study. The examination was for periodontal status and oral hygiene only. Periodontal status was recorded according to Russell's Periodontal Index (PI). Oral hygiene was assessed according to Greene & Vermillion's Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S). Mean PI for the non-blind group was found to be 0.23, and for the blind students 0.79. Partially blind students were found to have a lower mean PI value than the totally blind. PI values did not increase significantly with age. Blind students exhibited a fair-to-poor level of oral hygiene (according to Greene & Vermillion's categorization). Relatively healthier levels of oral hygiene were found in the partially blind as compared with the totally blind. Mean OHI-S did not vary with age in either group.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Maximal oxygen uptake in relation to age in blind and normal boys and girls.

Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) was measured in 180 children during exhaustive work on a bicycle ergometer. The material comprised 12 blind boys and 11 blind girls (8-14 years) as well as 82 normal boys and 75 normal girls (8-17 years). VO2 max increased linearly with age in all four groups. In normal girls mature values were reached at the age of 14 years. Normal boys had significantly higher values than normal girls and their VO2 max increased faster with age. No sex differences in VO2 max were found in blind children. Normal children had significantly higher values than the blind. VO2 max/kg was uninfluenced by age in three of the groups: 55, 45 and 37 ml/min/kg in normal boys, blind boys and blind girls, respectively. In normal girls VO2 max/kg decreased with age from 51 to 42 ml/min/kg. Significant sex differences were found in both normal and blind children. VO2 max/kg in blind boys was 82% of that of normal boys, while blind girls had significantly lower values than normal girls. Most of these differences were established already at the age of 8 years. It is concluded that the differences in maximal oxygen uptake between normal and blind children are to a high degree due to different levels of physical activity during early childhood.

Adolescent↗