Blindness in Iceland

In a special survey 419 legally blind persons (corrected visual acuity 6/60 or less) were traced throughout the whole counntry at the end of the year 1979. The overall prevalence of legal blindness is 185.1 per 100000 population. By using the locomotor vision criteria (3/60) the number is 272 and the overall rate 120 per 100000. Two thirds of the legally blind and one third have no useful vision. The prevalence of legal blindness is highest in the oldest age groups and 50% of the total are over 80 years old. The most common causes of legal blindness are senile macular degeneration (39.6%), prenatal influence (19.3%), open angle glaucoma (17.7%). The blindness rate has decreased a great deal in the past three decades. This is due to a decreased incidence in glaucoma blindness. For years there had been no organized registration of the blind in Iceland and the number of visually handicapped people were therefore unknown. A study of legally blind and partially seeing children was done in 1978 (Halldórsson & Björnsson 1980).