Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Causes of Visual Impairment in an Elderly Chinese Uygur Population in Southern Xinjiang

Yi Sun; Guangming Jin; Mengting Yang; Jing Fu; Xueyi Chen; Bingsheng Lou

doi:10.1155/2021/8843032

Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Causes of Visual Impairment in an Elderly Chinese Uygur Population in Southern Xinjiang

J Ophthalmol. 2021 Apr 5:2021:8843032. doi: 10.1155/2021/8843032. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yi Sun^{1

2}, Guangming Jin¹, Mengting Yang³, Jing Fu³, Xueyi Chen³, Bingsheng Lou¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510060, China.
² Department of Ophthalmology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China.
³ Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830054, China.

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the prevalence, risk factors, and major causes of visual impairment (VI) in an elderly Chinese Uygur population in southern Xinjiang.

Methods: This was a population-based cross-sectional study. Participants aged 50 years and older from Haohan Country, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, were enrolled from August 2018 to December 2018 using cluster sampling. Participants underwent examinations including presenting visual acuity (PVA), pinhole vision, slit-lamp, intraocular pressure, and direct ophthalmoscopy. Participants' education and demographic information was collected by a questionnaire. The prevalence, risk factors, and major causes of vision loss were evaluated.

Results: A total of 1465 participants (85.4% response rate) were enrolled. The mean age of the subjects was 59.1 ± 9.7 years. The prevalence of mild VI, moderate VI, severe VI, and blindness in the better eye was 13.3%, 12.8%, 2.9%, and 3.4%, respectively. The prevalence of low vision and blindness in this study was higher than that in Altay & Tacheng and Changji in northern Xinjiang, lower than that in Luxi, and similar to that in Tibet. The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that age, education level, and body mass index (BMI) were significantly associated with low vision and blindness (P ≤ 0.001, <0.05, 0.002, respectively). The major causes of low vision were cataract (42.6%), refractive error (19.6%), and glaucoma (12.6%), whereas the primary causes of blindness were cataract (34%), glaucoma (34%), and retinitis pigmentosa (10%).

Conclusions: VI is an important public health issue among elderly Uygur individuals in the area, especially for those with low education levels. Cataract is the leading cause of low vision and blindness.