Causes of Blindness among Syrian Refugees Living in Southeastern Turkey

Abstract

ABSTRACTPurpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the causes of blindness in Syrian refugees living in southeastern Turkey. Another aim was to help the authorities determine strategies for dealing with blindness.Methods: A detailed ophthalmologic examination, including visual acuity and intraocular pressure, of 253 Syrian refugee patients complaining of visual impairment was conducted between January 2016 and January 2018 at our hospital’s outpatient clinic.Results: Of the 253 Syrian refugee patients who visited our outpatient clinic, 176 (69.6%) were female and 77 (30.4%) male. The mean age of the patients was 46.4 ± 20.8 years. 27.3% of the patients were blind (N = 69) and 5.9% of the patients had severe visual impairment (N = 15). The most common causes of blindness were cataract (N = 42, 60.8%), refractive error (N = 8, 11.6%), phthisis (N = 5, 7.3%) and corneal opacity (N = 5, 7.3%). The highest rate of blindness (21.3%) was observed in the subgroup of patients over 40 years of age.Conclusions: Our study showed that Syrian refugees living in southeastern Turkey have been affected by several causes of preventable blindness, although they had free access to public health services in the country. The possible reasons of this situation are difficulties associated with lack of knowledge regarding eye health services and challenges arising from organisational problems related to the delivery of health services. Providing regular eye disease screening programmes and rehabilitation services may be beneficial in preventing blindness in the refugee population.