The prevalence of disorders causing disability in young adult males in Turkey between 2009-2011

Objective: Disability is one of the significant problems that the public faces as regards social aspects, economics, public health and politics. Our aim was to review the prevalence of diseases causing disabilities in young adult men who are declared “unfit for military service” in Turkey after medical examination.

Methods: We reviewed the prevalence of diseases among 113,175 young adult men who were referred for medical examination between 2009 and 2011.

Results: Prevalence of unfitness for military service was 5.56% in 2009, 6.74% in 2010 and 6.77% in 2011. Leading causes for young adult men to be rejected from military service was intellectual disability 6.88, hearing loss 3.71, epilepsy 1.59, schizophrenia 1.54 and diabetes mellitus 1.47 per thousand people.

Conclusion: Screening for the prevalence of disability conditions is an important data source for policies to be developed. Supporting such survey with community based studies in different populations in future shall be beneficial for improvement of policies in social and health fields.