Defective vision among Kuwaiti students.

A study, which was intended to find out the main causes of defective vision among Kuwaiti students, yielded the following results: The percentage of defective vision among 139,769 Kuwaiti students is 0.099%. Hereditary and genetic causes are responsible for 75.5% of the cases. Recessive inheritance account for 36.2% Autosomal dominant account for 34.3% Sex linked 9.5% Multifactorial 20.0% Forty-nine cases (of the total number of hereditary and genetic cases), i.e., 46.7% are the product of consanguineous marriages. Inflammatory causes account for 20.9%. The most common cause is neglected cases of muco-purulent and purulent conjunctivitis, becoming corneal ulcers and ensuing complications. This accounts for 62.1% of the total number of inflammatory causes. Traumatic, metabolic, and neoplastic causes account for 3.6%. Comparative data between England and Wales, Australia, Cyprus and Lebanon together with recommendations for improvement are discussed.