[Prevalence and surgery status of cataract among adults aged 50 years or above in the Shunyi district of Beijing: the China Nine-Province Survey].
OBJECTIVE
To assess the prevalence of cataract, the outcomes of cataract surgery, the rate of cataract surgical coverage, and the rate of cataract blindness social burden.


METHODS
Cluster sampling was used in 5118 randomly selected individuals aged > or = 50 years in the Shunyi district of Beijing from April to August 2006. All individuals were received visual acuity and eye examination, including the evaluation of lens status and cataract surgical status by slit lamp biomicroscopy. Data bank was established by Epi-info Software. Statistical analyses were performed using Stata/SE Statistical Software, release 9.0 (Stata Corp, College Station,TX). Multiple logistic regression analysis was employed to analyzed the prevalence of cataract,cataract surgical coverage rate,cataract blindness social burden rate and outcomes of surgery among different ages, sex and educational background.


RESULTS
In 5118 individuals, 797 cases of cataract were found, the prevalence of cataract was 15.57% among adults aged 50 or above. The prevalence of cataract was higher in the aged, female, illiterate persons (P < 0.01). In 189 eyes with cataract surgery, 65.08% and 23.28% of eyes were performed by the modern extra-capsular surgery and Phacoemulsification respectively. The rate of intraocular lens implantation was 89.42%. Post-operative presenting and best corrected visual acuity more than 0.7 was 30.16% and 61.38% of operated eyes respectively. The main causes of the post-operated eyes with worse visual acuity were post-capsular opacity and refractive error. The cataract surgical coverage rate was 62.22%, and the cataract blindness social burden rate was 2.64%. The cataract surgical rate was lower and cataract blindness social burden rate was higher in the aged persons (P < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Cataract is the most common eye disease that may lead into blindness and severe visual impairment among older adults aged equal or more than 50 years. The cataract surgical coverage rate is high in the Shunyi district, but still is lower in the aged persons. The visual outcomes of the surgery should be further improved in the future.
Department of Ophthalmology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China.
Feng-Rong
FR
Li
Jia-Liang
JL
Zhao
Hong
H
Lu
Hu
H
Liu
Jin
J
Mao
Li-Juan
LJ
Jiang
Yang
Y
Zhang
Yuan-Quan
YQ
Yang
Leon B
LB
Ellwein
Yu
Y
Wang
Xue-cheng
XC
Gao
Wen-Bao
WB
Zhang
D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002386:Cataract / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002387:Cataract Extraction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence