Prevalence of Eye Diseases and Causes of Visual Impairment in School-Aged Children in Western China

Background The present study investigated the prevalence of refractive error, visual impairment, and eye diseases in school-aged children in western China. Methods The survey was done in a representative county (Yongchuan District, Chongqing Municipality) of western China. Cluster random sampling was used to select children aged 6 to 15 years. We conducted door-to-door surveys and eye examinations including optometry, stereoscopic vision test, eye position and eye movement, slit lamp examination of the anterior segment, retinoscopy, and fundus examination after cycloplegia with 1% cyclopentolate. Results Among 3469 children, data were available for 3079 (88.76%). The prevalences of eye diseases were, in descending order, refractive error (20.69%; 637/3079), conjunctivitis (11.76%; 362/3079), amblyopia (1.88%; 58/3079), color vision defect (0.52%; 16/3079), keratitis (0.36%; 11/3079), strabismus (0.29%; 9/3079), cataract (0.23%; 7/3079), pathologic myopia (0.19%; 6/3079), and ocular trauma (0.13%; 4/3079). The prevalence of corneal leucoma, corneal staphyloma, optic neuropathy, macular degeneration, and myelinated nerve fibers was 0.03% (1/3079) for each. The prevalence of visual impairment was 7.70% (237/3079), and the major causes of visual impairment were uncorrected refractive error (86.08%; 204/237), amblyopia (9.70%; 23/237), pathologic myopia (1.27%; 3/237), congenital cataract (0.42%; 1/237), and others (2.11%; 5/237). Conclusions Among school-aged children in a less developed area of western China, refractive error was the most prevalent eye disorder, and uncorrected refractive error was the main cause of visual impairment.

• Publication year

  2011

• Venue

  Journal of Epidemiology

• Publication date

  2011-11-26

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.2188/jea.JE20110063PMID 22123227PMCID 3798578
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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