Original articlePrevalence of ocular diagnoses found on screening 1539 adults with intellectual disabilities☆
Section snippets
Population
The design of the Dutch multicenter study on visual and hearing impairment in adults with ID has been described elsewhere.8 In summary, from a background population of 9012 adult users of ID services (aged 18 years and older), a random sample of 2100 adults was drawn. Stratification was applied for age 50 or more and DS, which are both risk factors for visual impairment, to obtain subgroups large enough to yield valid information on subgroup prevalence and relative risks. The degree of ID
Description of the study population
Of the 1598 selected persons, 1539 took part in the visual screening. The other 59 dropped out for various reasons (deceased, ill, removal, withdrawal of permission). The distribution of age, presence of DS, and degree of ID is shown in Table 1. There were 862 males in the group (56.0%); age range was 20.2 to 88.7 years (mean, 45.7 years). Visual impairment or blindness was diagnosed in 261 participants.
Cooperation
The duration of the assessments was not monitored precisely, but the mean examination time
Discussion
Screening of a large adult population with ID revealed that specifically trained general physicians and orthoptists were able to assess most of this population. It was feasible to perform most of the assessments in 72% of the participants. Tonometry proved to be a problem, being assessable only in 26% of participants. Because of the nature of the screenings and participants' aversion to eyedrops, ophthalmoscopy was not performed. This assessment required ophthalmologic expertise, which was not
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the following optometrists, who assessed the selected participants: G.M.H.J. Arentz, M. Oostenbrink, and K. Spruyt. The authors also thank the following ophthalmologists, who assessed the referred patients: L.A.K. Bastiaensen, MD, PhD, Tilburg; J.R.M. Cruysberg, MD, PhD, Nijmegen; J.T.H.N. de Faber, MD, Rotterdam; M.M. van Genderen, MD, Zeist; F.D. Koole, MD, Amsterdam; J.W.R. Pott, MD, PhD, Groningen; C.M.C Schweitzer, MD, Almelo; M. Swart-van den Berg, MD, Leiden; N.T.
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Manuscript no. 230418.
Supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, The Hague, The Netherlands (grant no.: 940-33-029); the Dr Fischer Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; De Bruggen Intellectual Disability Center, Zwammerdam, The Netherlands; and Bartiméushage, Doorn, The Netherlands.
The authors have no commercial interests in any products described in this article.