Causes of childhood blindness in the People's Republic of China: results from 1131 blind school students in 18 provinces

Abstract

The pattern of childhood blindness seen in this study is likely to reflect the improved health and socioeconomic status of China but may partly reflect bias in admission to, and location of, blind schools, with higher socioeconomic groups overrepresented. Nutritional and infective causes of blindness are uncommon, and hereditary and unknown factors are now the predominant causes.