Abstract
Purpose :
To assess the prevalence and associated factors of vision
impairment and blindness in a very old Russian population.
Methods :
The population-based Ural Very Old Study (UVOS) was performed
in the city of Ufa/Russia with the inclusion criterion of living in
the study region and having an age of 85+ years.
Results :
The study included 810 individuals (595 (73.5%) women) with a
mean age of 88.1 ± 2.7 years (median:87 years; range: 85 to 97 years)
and a mean axial length of 23.1 ± 1.1 mm
(median:23.0mm;range:19.5-28.8mm). Prevalence of blindness (defined as
best corrected visual acuity (BCVA)<3/60 in the better eye) and
moderate or severe vision impairment (MSVI) (BCVA <6/18 but ≥3/60
in the better eye) was 42/810 (5.2%;95%CI:3.7,6.7) and 273/810
(33.7%;95%CI:30.4,37.0).
Both rates increased from 5.0%(95%CI:2.1,7.9) and 34.8%
(95%:28.5,41.2) in the 85-86-years-olds to 13.3%(95%CI4.5,22.2) and
45.0%(95%CI:32.0,58.0) in the 93+ years-olds. The major causes for
blindness were age-related macular degeneration (n=16;38%), cataract
(n=12;29%), glaucoma (n=8;19%), and other retinal or optic nerve
diseases (n=6;14%). The major causes for MSVI were cataract
(n=120;44%), age-related macular degeneration (n=74;27%), glaucoma
(n=25;9%), diabetic retinopathy (n=4;1.5%), other retinal or optic
nerve diseases (n=17;6%), and others.
Conclusions :
In this very old population from Russia, prevalence of
blindness and MSVI is high, with age-related macular degeneration as
the most common cause for blindness and cataract for MSVI. For 132
(42%) out of all blind or MSVI-affected individuals, vision impairment
could be treated by cataract surgery.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.