The prevalence and causes of insufficient vision for driving license in Denmark

The acquisition of driving license requires the fulfillment of several health criteria including standards for visual function. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence and causes of insufficient vision for driving license in a general Western population. In the FORSYN study, visual function, refraction, peripapillary optical coherence tomography scanning with fundus photography and computerized perimetry when visual field defects could be suspected, were performed in a representative sample of the adult Danish population. This presentation describes the prevalence and causes of insufficient vision for driving license obtained in this study. Visual requirements for ordinary driving license were unfulfilled in (mean, 95% confidence interval [CI]) by 1.92%, 1.67%–2.20% of the adult Danish population, corresponding to 89,690, 77,815–102,837 citizens. The most frequent known diagnoses causing visual loss in this group were age-related diseases such as atrophic age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. The visual requirements for professional driving license for persons less than 70 years of age were unfulfilled in (mean, 95% CI) 1.87%; 1.62%–2.15% of the adult Danish population, corresponding to 87,459, 75,736–100,456 citizens. The most frequently known causes of visual loss in this group were conditions typically developing earlier in life such as amblyopia, traumas and hereditary diseases. A reduction in the number of citizens not fulfilling visual requirements for ordinary driving license 1 depends on a further reduction in the prevalence of age-related eye diseases whereas a reduction for people of working age depends on the prevention of diseases that predominantly develop earlier in life.