SUMMARY
The State Health Secretariat of São Paulo throught the Sanitary Ophthalmology Service and the CronicaI Degenerative Diseases section of the Health Institute performed a survey in a sample of elderly people of the city of São Paulo during the years 1986 and 1987 being one of the objetives to know the prevalence of visual impairment and its causes.
The exam on a sample of 120 people in three sub-districts of the city of São Paulo - Aclimação, Vila Guilherme and Brasilândia showed a prevalence of 31,4% with low vision and 6,8% with blindness, that are higher when compared with other national and international studies.
The services used by the sample population were private (38,1%), Institute of Social Security (22,9%) and only (4,2%) used public services of the Health State Secretariat - São Paulo.
The main diseases diagnosed were refractional errors (49,2%), senil cataracts (27,5%), senil macular degeneration (10,8%) and glaucoma (4,2%). The causes for low vision and blindness were cataracts (54,1%) and senil macular degeneration (18,9%).
This data showed that a high percentage of this population need ophthalmological services.
In conclusion the ocular health services ought to priorize this age group because of the high prevalence of low vision and blindness due to preventable and treatable eye diseases.