Evaluation assessment of vision in professional drivers to issue health card

Abstract

Background: Around 90 of deadly accidents are due to human errors. Human factors like visual errors are the major cause of traffic accidents. We aimed to check the prevalence of different eyesight disorders in professional drivers going to take their drivers’ health card and also to evaluate used vision assessment tools. Methods: In this cross sectional study, all the drivers (1941 persons) referred to the occupational medicine center of Baharlo hospital, Tehran, Iran, in a 6-months period were evaluated. Eyesight acuity, visual field, and color vision were evaluated using Snellen chart, vision screener apparatus, and plastic color plates and also Ishii Hara’s standard test. Findings: 243 drivers, without correcting their eyesight, were ineligible (in aspect of visual acuity) to receive health card. Among people corrected their vision, except one person, all the rest were able to receive health card. Just 2 persons (0.1) had problem in distinguishing color plates; visual field was normal in all the participants. Conclusion: Findings indicate the need for precise evaluation of visual acuity, specialized assessment of visual field, and usage of color vision functional tests. More studies are needed about optometric approaches and vision adequacy criteria in taking health card by drivers. © 2017, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences(IUMS). All rights reserved.