Visual fitness of public vehicle drivers in southeast of Iran

• Main Authors: Ali Sharifi, Hamid Sharifi, Mohammad Karamouzian, Elham Daneshtalab, Ali Daneshtalab
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2013-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Preventive Medicine
• Subjects: Kerman; public vehicle driver; road safety; vision
• Online Access: http://www.ijpvmjournal.net/article.asp?issn=2008-7802;year=2013;volume=4;issue=6;spage=705;epage=709;aulast=Sharifi

Background: Although visual impairment of drivers is a very important risk factor for car accident, a few published papers have explored this issue in Iran. This study aims to evaluate the visual fitness of public vehicle drivers in Kerman province, southeast of Iran. Methods: A total of 4,003 public vehicle drivers were examined by one ophthalmologist for visual fitness in Kerman province between January 2009 and June 2010. Data are presented as Mean±SD or percentage, and with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Pearson Chi-square and McNemmar tests along with crude odds ratio (OR) were used to compare vision deficit between groups. Results: Almost 361 drivers (9.0%; 95% CI: 8.1-9.9) had insufficient vision to drive public vehicles before the refractive errors (RE) correction and this number, was reduced to 68 drivers (1.7%; 95% CI: 1.3-2.1) after the correction. A number of them including 200 drivers (5.0%; 95% CI: 4.3-5.7) had insufficient vision to drive personal vehicles before the correction and this was reduced to 30 thereafter (0.8%; 95% CI: 0.5-1.0). We also found out that the vision status got worse with aging, and RE was the most prevalent cause of sight defects. Conclusion: It seems that visual fitness of public vehicle drivers is a point of real concerns which might somewhat explain the high rate of car accidents in Iran.