Sociodemographic, lifestyle, and medical risk factors for visual impairment in an urban asian population: the singapore malay eye study.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the associations between sociodemographic, lifestyle, and medical risk factors and visual impairment in a Southeast Asian population.


METHODS
Population-based cross-sectional study of 3280 (78.7% response rate) Malay Singaporeans aged 40 to 80 years. Participants underwent a standardized interview, in which detailed sociodemographic histories were obtained, and clinical assessments for presenting and best-corrected visual acuity. Visual impairment (logMAR > 0.30) was classified as unilateral (1 eye impaired) or bilateral (both eyes impaired). Analyses used multivariate-adjusted multinomial logistic regression.


RESULTS
Older age and lack of formal education was associated with increased odds of both unilateral and bilateral visual impairment based on presenting and best-corrected visual acuity. The odds doubled for each decade older, and lower education increased the odds 1.59- to 2.83-fold. Bilateral visual impairment was associated with being unemployed (odds ratio [OR], 1.84; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.30-2.60), widowed status (OR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.13-2.01), and higher systolic blood pressure (OR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.44-2.66). Diabetes was associated with unilateral (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.10-1.95) and bilateral (OR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.23-2.32) visual impairment using best-corrected visual acuity.


CONCLUSIONS
Older age, lower education, unemployment, being widowed, diabetes, and hypertension were independently associated with bilateral visual impairment. Public health interventions should be targeted to these at-risk populations.
Chong
Elaine W
EW
FRCSE, Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, 32 Gisborne St, East Melbourne 3002, Australia.
Lamoureux
Ecosse L
EL
Jenkins
Mark A
MA
Aung
Tin
T
Saw
Seang-Mei
SM
Wong
Tien Y
TY
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology; D001766:Blindness / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012846:Singapore / Q000453:epidemiology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015354:Vision, Low / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014792:Visual Acuity; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*