Purpose: The accreditation criteria for visual impairment in the Physically Disabled Person's Handbook were revised in July 2018. After this revision, visual field impairment can be certified using "the criteria of either Goldmann perimetry (GP) or automated perimetry (AP)" rather than "the criteria of GP," which was used previously. This study reports the state of visual field impairment certification after the revision of visual impairment accreditation criteria by assessing individuals certified with visual impairment in Mie Prefecture, Japan.
Subjects and methods: The participants were 405 individuals (221 men and 184 women) who were newly certified with visual impairment in Mie Prefecture between July 2018 and March 2020. We investigated their primary diseases, perimeter type used, certification grades, etc., based on the participants' Medical Certificate/Opinion on Physical Disability.
Results: Of all participants, 80.0% were certified with visual field impairment (including overlaps with visual acuity impairment certification). Primary diseases associated with visual field impairment were mainly glaucoma (46.9%), retinitis pigmentosa (17.3%), and diabetic retinopathy (10.2%) in a descending order. Regarding the perimeters used in disability certification, GP was used in 69.8% of cases, whereas AP was used in 30.2%. In terms of grade distribution, Grades 2 and 5 together accounted for 96.3% of the total, whereas Grades 3 and 4 together accounted for the remaining 3.7%.
Conclusions: We reported our survey results regarding individuals certified with visual field impairment following the revision of the visual impairment accreditation criteria in 2018. The results showed that 30.2% of participants were certified using the newly introduced AP and Grades 2 and 5 together accounted for 96.3% of the total grade distribution.
Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi (J Jpn Ophthalmol Soc) 126: 703-709, 2022.