الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Youth is an important group of the population that will eventually form the bulk of the working force of the country. There is a growing concern about health problems presented by youth, and with means of dealing with these problems. status. However, information is lacking on their health The nationwide medical ex~mination of Egyptian youth prior to mili tary service is a potentiar-efource for the assessment of their state of health. The existing framework for extensive da ta collection serve as foundation for epidemiologic studies of the state of health in this population. . Hence the study was performed with the aim of deter-~ mining the defects and diseases among enlistees, their analysis in relation to various epidemiologic parameters, and to evaluate the degree of disability for those showing visual and locomotive defects. To accomplish this work; all enlistees ~xamined at’ Alexandria Recruitment Center in the year 1979 were included in the st udy. A questionnaire was designed to collect data through interview. Those who showed defects were reexamined and cases of visual and locomotive defects were evaluated for the degree of disability according to the Egyptian law. The study revealed the following main results: 1- The main leading cause of defects for rejection from service was: eye and visual defects (24.6/1000), followed by internal medicine defects (16.3/1000),musculo-skeletal defects (12.7/1000) and ear and hearing defects (5.0/1000). 2- The prevalence of defects was higher among certain groups e. g. rurals, illi tera tes and agricult ural workers; pointing . to environmental andsocio-economic differences. 3- Errors of refraction, curneal opacities, and strabismus were the main causes of eye and visual defects a~ong examined persons. 4- The leading cause of rejection for internal medicine defects was bilharzial hepato-splenomegaly among rurals (19.1/1000), and rheumatic heart disease among urbans (3.3/1000). 5- Poliomyelitis (4.7/1000) and trauma (2.8/1000) were the main causes of musculo-skeletal defects. 6- Otitis media (4.3/1000) was the main cause of ear and hearing defects. 7- Nervous and mental defects showed higher Rrevalence among urbans (2.4/1000) than among rurals (1.3/1000). 8- Infection was the main etiological factor for internal wedicine defects (81.5