The prevalence of refractive and ocular anomalies among 1242 institutionalized mentally retarded persons

The population of a large Canadian institution, providing rehabilitative and health care for the mentally retarded, received oculo-visual assessments in an optometric clinic established in the hospital by the University of Waterloo, School of Optometry. The ocular and visual anomalies of 1242 residents have been compiled and analyzed. This paper reports the results and discusses their implications. The size of the sample makes the data useful in planning vision care delivery to the mentally retarded. Comparisons are made to similar data obtained from a concurrent study of a community sample and to studies from vision literature.