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. 2019 Jul;103(7):871-877.
doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2018-312292. Epub 2018 Nov 8.

Prevalence and causes of blindness and vision impairment: magnitude, temporal trends and projections in South and Central Asia

Vinay Nangia #  1 , Jost B Jonas #  2 , Ronnie George  3 , Vijaya Lingam  3 , Leon Ellwein  4 , Maria Vittoria Cicinelli  5 , Aditi Das  6 , Seth R Flaxman  7 , Jill E Keeffe  8 , John H Kempen  9   10 , Janet Leasher  11 , Hans Limburg  12 , Kovin Naidoo  13 , Konrad Pesudovs  14 , Serge Resnikoff  15 , Alexander J Silvester  16 , Nina Tahhan  15 , Hugh R Taylor  17 , Tien Y Wong  18 , Rupert R A Bourne  19 ; Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study
Collaborators, Affiliations
Free article

Prevalence and causes of blindness and vision impairment: magnitude, temporal trends and projections in South and Central Asia

Vinay Nangia et al. Br J Ophthalmol. 2019 Jul.
Free article

Abstract

Background: To assess prevalence and causes of vision loss in Central and South Asia.

Methods: A systematic review of medical literature assessed the prevalence of blindness (presenting visual acuity<3/60 in the better eye), moderate and severe vision impairment (MSVI; presenting visual acuity <6/18 but ≥3/60) and mild vision impairment (MVI; presenting visual acuity <6/12 and ≥6/18) in Central and South Asia for 1990, 2010, 2015 and 2020.

Results: In Central and South Asia combined, age-standardised prevalences of blindness, MSVI and MVI in 2015 were for men and women aged 50+years, 3.72% (80% uncertainty interval (UI): 1.39-6.75) and 4.00% (80% UI: 1.41-7.39), 16.33% (80% UI: 8.55-25.47) and 17.65% (80% UI: 9.00-27.62), 11.70% (80% UI: 4.70-20.32) and 12.25% (80% UI:4.86-21.30), respectively, with a significant decrease in the study period for both gender. In South Asia in 2015, 11.76 million individuals (32.65% of the global blindness figure) were blind and 61.19 million individuals (28.3% of the global total) had MSVI. From 1990 to 2015, cataract (accounting for 36.58% of all cases with blindness in 2015) was the most common cause of blindness, followed by undercorrected refractive error (36.43%), glaucoma (5.81%), age-related macular degeneration (2.44%), corneal diseases (2.43%), diabetic retinopathy (0.16%) and trachoma (0.04%). For MSVI in South Asia 2015, most common causes were undercorrected refractive error (accounting for 66.39% of all cases with MSVI), followed by cataract (23.62%), age-related macular degeneration (1.31%) and glaucoma (1.09%).

Conclusions: One-third of the global blind resided in South Asia in 2015, although the age-standardised prevalence of blindness and MSVI decreased significantly between 1990 and 2015.

Keywords: blindness; cataract; epidemiology; glaucoma; global burden of disease study; macular degeneration; refractive error; vision impairment; vision loss; vision loss expert group.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: JBJ is the patent holder with Biocompatibles UK (Farnham, Surrey, UK) (Title: Treatment of eye diseases using encapsulated cells encoding and secreting neuroprotective factor and / or anti-angiogenic factor; Patent number: 20120263794) and Patent application with University of Heidelberg (Heidelberg, Germany) (Title: Agents for use in the therapeutic or prophylactic treatment of myopia or hyperopia; Europäische Patentanmeldung 15 000 771.4. SR is the consultant for Brien Holden Vision Institute.

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