The Incidence of Eye Dominance in Turkey

Purpose: To investigate the incidence of eye dominance in Turkey. Methods: Three hundred soldiers with a mean age of 31.48 +/- 5.73 (21-51) who referred to Agri Military Hospital for their periodic check-up were included to the study. Dolman's method (hole-in-the-card test) determined the patient's ocular dominance. Right or left handedness preference while writing, and shooting were asked during examination. Visual acuity was tested and refractive erros were determined. Any association with all these findings and ocular dominance were investigated. Data analysis was performed by using SPSS for Windows, version 11.5. Mann Whitney U test was used for mean variables, and Chi-square test was used for categorical comparisons. A p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Right eye was dominant in 80%. Handedness while writing was 94%, and shooting in 95%. There were no asssociation with ocular dominance and shooting hand (p=0.077), writing hand (p=0.300) and refractive errors (p=0.595). Conclusion: Right eye was more dominant than left eye. This study may be repeated with more subjects and with both gender. Detecting ocular dominance may be considered when planning to treat young adults, especially the presbyopic patients, and patients who will have cataract surgery to choose the correct eye for the treatment.