[The eye function of various contingents of the adult population based on data from the first stage of universal outpatient care].

At the first stage of ophthalmologic dispensarization of population 1287 rural (535 men) and 1328 urban (648 men) inhabitants have been examined. A comparative analysis of pathology of the eye, the state of visual acuity in different age contingents of rural and urban population, aged from 17 to 79 years, has shown pathology of the eye among rural population in 56.88 and among urban--in 35.17% of cases. Normal visual acuity (with correction) was observed more frequently (921.09 per 1000 eyes) in persons living in a town than in inhabitants of villages (779.33 per 1000 eyes). This index is remarkably lower in persons above 49 years of age because of development of such diseases as senile cataract, pathology of the retina and the optic nerve, etc. Practical blindness among rural population was observed much rarer (6.78 per 1000 eyes) than among rural population (8.95 per 1000 eyes). The incidence of the same pathology in similar age groups of different contingents of adult population was different. This should be considered when organizing dispensary observation over rural and urban population.