Prevalence and causes of visual impairment and blindness in Sistan-va-Baluchestan Province, Iran: Zahedan Eye Study

Shahriari, Hossein Ali; Izadi, Shahrokh; Rouhani, Mohammad Reza; Ghasemzadeh, Farzaneh; Maleki, Ali Reza

doi:10.1136/bjo.2006.105734

Cited by 54 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…For correct comparison with the findings of Tehran and Zahedan studies, 12,13 we reported the results of visual impairment in 40-to 59-year-old participants, similar to Tehran and Zahedan studies. In Tehran and Zahedan studies, visual impairment according to the corrected vision in the age group 40-59 was 1.3% and 9.4%, respectively.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

“…[24][25][26][27][28] However, the results of these studies indicate that visual impairment because of uncorrected refractive errors was considerably high in our study, even higher than Tehran and Zahedan studies. 12,13 Considering the fact that the prevalence of the visual impairment in our study was 0.8% and 2.3%, respectively, 1.5% of the participants could prevent from visual impairment by correcting their PVA. The 0.8% of the population who still have visual impairment after correcting refractive errors should either receive surgical intervention or get used to their visual impairment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This comparison also shows that the inhabitants of Shahroud are less affected by visual impairment than the inhabitants of Tehran and Zahedan. 12,13 Regarding Zahedan, it should be kept in mind that this city is one of the weakest cities of Iran in terms of several health indices. In general, the better socioeconomic status of Shahroud may be one of the reasons of the low prevalence of visual impairment in this city.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, two papers have been published on visual impairments in Iran. 12,13 Although one of them was performed in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, and the nonhomogeneity of the samples resulted in more generalizable findings for Iran, 12 some factors have made grounds for further work in this regard.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visual impairment in the 40- to 64-year-old population of Shahroud, Iran

Hashemi

Khabazkhoob

Emamian

et al. 2012

Eye

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Purpose To determine the prevalence of visual impairment by age and gender in Shahroud. Methods Using random cluster sampling, 6311 Shahroud inhabitants who were between 40 and 64 years old were invited for ophthalmological examinations. Visual acuity worse than 0.5 LogMAR (20/60) and 1.3 LogMAR (20/ 400) in the better eye was regarded as low vision and blindness, respectively. The cause of blindness was determined by an ophthalmologist and in a person with more than one cause, the most correctable cause was regarded as the main cause. Results This study was conducted on 5190 participants (response rate: 82.2%). On the basis of presenting visual acuity, the prevalence of low vision and blindness was found to be 1.8% (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.4-2.10) and 0.5% (95% CI: 0.3-0.7), respectively. Based on corrected vision, these values were 0.5% (95% CI: 0.3-0.7) and 0.3% (95% CI: 0.1-0.4), respectively. Visual impairment increased with age in women (Po0.001). Uncorrected refractive errors (63.9%), cataract (20.2%), and amblyopia (5.9%) were the most common causes of visual impairment based on presenting vision. Based on corrected vision, however, cataract (42.5%), amblyopia (12.5%), and retinitis pigmentosa (7.5%) were the most common causes of visual impairment. Conclusion Although the prevalence of visual impairment in the city of Shahroud was determined to be lower than two previous studies in the country, correction of refractive errors and cataract could minimize the rate of visual impairment in this population as they were shown to comprise 85% of the causes of visual impairment. The elderly women need to receive more attention.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visual impairment in the 40- to 64-year-old population of Shahroud, Iran

Hashemi

Khabazkhoob

Emamian

et al. 2012

Eye

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The prevalence of blindness and cataract surgical burden in the study area was very high compared to other regional surveys that have been conducted in Nepal, 3,4 neighboring countries, and elsewhere [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] (Table 8). The high incidence of cataracts, especially in the Terai area, in Nepal has also been described in the National Blind-ness Survey.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%