Distance‐ and near‐visual impairment in rural Chinese adults in Kailu, Inner Mongolia

Abstract

ABSTRACT.Purpose: To investigate the prevalence and causes of distance-visual impairment and near-vision impairment in a rural Chinese population in Inner Mongolia. Methods: A population-based, cross-sectional study design was used to identify visual impairment in the Chinese aged 40 years and older living in Kailu County, Inner Mongolia. Low vision, blindness and near-visual impairment (NVI) were defined according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Results: The overall prevalence of blindness and visual impairment based on the presenting visual acuity (VA) was 2.2% (95% CI: 1.8-2.6) and 9.8% (95% CI: 8.9-10.6), respectively, and was adjusted to 0.9% (95% CI: 0.6-1.2) and 4.7% (95% CI: 4.1-5.3) using best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), respectively. Taking the presenting VA into consideration, the leading cause of visual impairment and blindness was cataract (40.3%, 40.9%), followed by uncorrected refractive error (26.6%, 28.2%). According to the BCVA, the main cause of visual impairment and blindness was cataract (48.3%, 41.3%) followed by glaucoma (19.0%, 23.9%). Among the examined subjects, 80.3% had NVI, and 51.7% had presbyopia. Major barriers reported by NVI persons without near correction were lack of money to purchase prescription glasses and poor quality of the available ones (43.2%). Conclusion: Visual impairment is a serious public health problem, and the main causes leading to visual impairment are treatable and preventable in the rural Chinese population in Inner Mongolia. Presbyopia, together with the low rate of spectacles and lack of appropriate refractive and presbyopia spectacles, is highly prevalent in rural China.

Blindness, low vision and cataract surgery outcome among adults in Hohhot of Inner Mongolia: a Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) study

“…On the other hand, the prevalence of low vision (5.7%) in our study was slightly higher than those in Baotou (3.7%)3 and Kailu (4.7%) 4. Nevertheless, the study sample for Baotou and Kailu studies were aged 40 years and above.…”

“…Another study in Kailu, northern Inner Mongolia, reported that the prevalence of blindness and VI based on best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 0.9% and 4.7%, respectively. The leading cause of VI and blindness in Kailu was also cataract 4. However, barriers to cataract surgery and cataract surgery-related outcomes were not investigated in these previous studies.…”

Prevalence and causes of low vision and blindness in Baotou

“…[8] The studies estimating the prevalence of blindness and low vision in China published from January 2010 to April 2016 were searched and presented in Table 6. [4,9–20] Although the estimating criteria for blindness and low vision differed among studies, Table 6 shows that according to the BCVA in better eye, previous studies reported that the prevalence rates of blindness and low vision were 0.2% to 2.88% and 1.4% to 10.41% in China, respectively. In rural of Kailu County, Inner Mongolia, the overall prevalence rates of blindness and low vision based on BCVA were 0.9% and 7.52%, respectively.…”

“…[3] In the rural Chinese population in Kailu which is a county in Tongliao city of Inner Mongolia, the overall prevalence rates of visual impairment and blindness using presenting visual acuity (PVA) were 9.8% and 2.2%, respectively, and were adjusted to 4.7% and 0.9% based on the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), respectively. [4] Kailu is in the east of Inner Mongolia, and most of the population is rural. However, Baotou (40°38′00″N, 109°59′00″E) is the biggest City of the Inner Mongolia.…”

Associations between Body Mass Index and Visual Impairment of School Students in Central China

“…VI in school-age students is a major public health problem [2,3,4,5]. Good visual acuity (VA) is critical to students’ well-being and VI has many negative effects on all domains of the development of individuals [6,7,8,9,10].…”