ABSTRACT
Objective:
To analyze the causes of blindness among students of the Lar Escola Santa Luzia Para Cegos in the city of Bauru, State of São Paulo. We also evaluated and discussed the degrees of social insertion of the students and the access to health and locomotion of the visually impaired.
Methods:
A prospective, qualitative and quantitative study was performed with all 66 students of the Lar Escola Santa Luzia para Cegos in the city of Bauru. Each person with visual impairment answered several questionnaires on various subjects and underwent an ophthalmologic examination consisting of: anamnesis, refraction and corrected visual acuity (VA), biomicroscopy, tonometry and fundus examination.
Results:
Out of the total of 66 students in the school, 44 participated in the study and 22 did not want or could not attend the ophthalmological visit. 56.81% (25) of the total participants were men and 43.19% (19) women. The students' challenges in this study basically include locomotion with greater autonomy, as well as greater resources available in computer science and Braille. The most frequent causes of visual impairment in the present study, in increasing order of prevalence were: optic atrophy, meningitis, toxoplasmosis retinocoriditis, optic neuritis, AMD, retinopathy of prematurity, tractional retinal detachment, hydrocephalus, ocular tumor, congenital glaucoma, uveitis, glaucoma, pigmentary retinitis, regmatogenic retinal detachment and ocular trauma.
Conclusion:
Government measures and the support of the society for effective and transformative intervention and solidarity-based social values for the visually impaired are essential for social inclusion.
Keywords:
Blindness/epidemiology; Low vision/epidemiology; Visual impairment people; Scholar health services