title: Prevalence of lens opacities in Asian Malays.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the prevalence of lens opacities and cataract surgery in an older Malay population in Singapore.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Singapore Malay Eye Study is a population-based cross-sectional study of 3280 (78.7% response rate) Malay adults aged 40-80 years. Participants underwent a standardized clinical eye examination. Digital slit-lamp and retroillumination photographs were taken of both eyes of each participant and graded for age-related nuclear, cortical and posterior subcapsular (PSC) cataract, following the Wisconsin Cataract Grading System. Other lens opacities, including retrodots and vacuoles, were also graded. Information on medical and lifestyle factors was collected using questionnaires. The study sample was directly age-standardized to the Malay population in Singapore using the 2000 Singapore population census.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 3054 (97.7%) and 3113 (99.6%) participants had gradable Topcon slit lamp and Neitz photographs, respectively. The overall age-adjusted prevalence of any cataract was 29.1%, and that of nuclear, cortical and PSC cataract were 12.9% (95% confidence interval, CI, 11.2-13.1%), 21.2% (95% CI 19.8-22.7%) and 9.7% (95% CI 8.8-10.8%), respectively. Age-adjusted prevalence of cataract surgery was 4.7% (95% CI 4.2-5.4%). Prevalence of all three cataract types and cataract surgery increased with age. Age-adjusted prevalence for retrodots and vacuoles were 19.7% (95% CI 18.3-21.1%) and 64.3% (95% CI 61.1-67.6%), respectively. Retrodots were found to be associated with prevalence of all three cataract types, while vacuoles were associated with cortical and PSC cataract prevalence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lens opacities were common in this urban Malay population. Retrodots and vacuoles were found to be associated with age-related cataract.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology and Westmead Millennium Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Ava Grace
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Wan Ting
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Tay
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Mya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sandar
authors.forename: Tin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aung
authors.forename: Seang-Mei
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Saw
authors.forename: Jie Jin
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tien Yin
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology; D002386:Cataract / Q000145:classification / Q000208:ethnology*; D002387:Cataract Extraction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012846:Singapore / Q000453:epidemiology