Abstract
Purpose:
To determine the age- and gender- specific prevalence of visual impairment and blindness in Chinese-Americans 50 years and older.
Methods:
A total of 4582 participants underwent ophthalmologic exams at the local clinic site with complete measurements for presenting and best-corrected distance visual acuity (VA) using Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study charts. Age- and gender- specific prevalence of visual impairment and blindness were calculated using chi-square procedures.
Results:
The overall prevalence of visual Impairment for presenting binocular (VA 20-40 or worse, including 20/40) was 10.4%. The overall prevalence for visual impairment (best-corrected VA of ≤ 20/40 in the better eye) was 4.1% (n=186); ranging from 0.8% (50-59 years) to 25.8% (≥ 80 years). Visual impairment increased with age (p-trend<0.0001). The overall prevalence of blindness (best-corrected VA of ≤20/200 in the better eye) was 0.2% (n=10). Blindness increased with older age in the better seeing eye from 50-59 years to 70-79 years and in the worse seeing eye across all age ranges (p-trend<0.01).
Conclusions:
Rates of visual impairment and blindness are high in older participants. When comparing our results with other Chinese eye studies, rates of visual impairment and blindness vary from country to country within the Chinese population. When comparing our results with other eye studies in the United States, rates of visual impairment in CHES is similar to the rates in The Los Angeles Latino Eye Study and The Beaver Dam Eye Study.
Keywords: 584 low vision •
754 visual acuity