Abstract
Purpose :
To collect cataract surgery rate (CSR) data worldwide for the past decade, explore the associations between economic development of countries and their respective CSRs, and to model and predict the appropriate level of CSR based on the economic data of a country.
Methods :
Design: Global perspective.
Data sources: OVID (Medline and Embase), Pubmed, Embase.com, ISI Web of Science, Cochrane Library databases, and additional data from unpublished reports were retrieved.
CSRs and economic (gross domestic product per capita, GDP/P) were collected for each country from 2005 to 2014. The data from 50 countries underwent statistical analysis according to population. Linear correlations between GDP/P and CSR were calculated. CSR data over two periods were used for analysis: 2005-2009, 2010-2014 (CSR in 2009 or nearest year, CSR in 2014 or nearest year).
Results :
Over the study period, CSR data at time points were available for 152 countries. Most of the CSR data were obtained from NGO reports, including WHO reports. A good linear correlation between CSR and GDP/P was found overall, nearest to 2009 (β=0.162, Linear: y=0.162x+282.242; R2=0.665, P<0.001). Regression analysis of CSR nearest to 2014 produced similar findings, with significant correlations between CSR and GDP/P (Linear: y=0.208x+94.008; R2=0.785, P<0.001). The appropriate levels of CSR for each country based on economic data may be calculated using these equations. Most countries had an increase in CSRs over time, with the greatest increases observed for Iran and Argentina.
Conclusions :
CSR and GDP/P data is closely associated, providing an opportunity to estimate appropriate CSRs consistent with the state and size of an economy. Furthermore, a centralized registry for countries is recommended for more accurate data on CSR and outcomes of cataract surgeries to be reported.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.