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. 2024 Dec 30;14(1):31812.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-83080-5.

Prevalence of cataracts in Iran based on the Persian eye cohort study

Fateme Alipour  1 , Parisa Abdi  2 , Hassan Asadigandomani  1 , Mehran Rezakhani  3 , Fatemeh Moosaie  4 , Fateme Jafari  1 , Mehdi Yaseri  5 , Nazgol Motamed-Gorji  3 , Fahimeh Khalili  6 , Roya Tavakoli  7 , Abolfazl Tahkor  8 , Masoome Mohseni  9 , Samira Salimpour  10 , Seyed Mohammad Javad Mousavi Aref  11 , Mohammad Mirzaei  12 , Mohammadreza Soleimani  13 , Kourosh Shahraki  14 , Yousef Alizade  15 , Mohammad Reza Shoja  16 , Gholam Reza Khataminia  17 , Mahmoud Jabbarvand Behrouz  1 , Hassan Hashemi  18
Affiliations

Prevalence of cataracts in Iran based on the Persian eye cohort study

Fateme Alipour et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The PERSIAN eye cohort study is a population-based study that evaluates the overall prevalence of cataracts and their subtypes (nuclear sclerosis, cortical, and PSC) in Iran. In this study, from January 2015 to September 2021, 16,016 participants over 35 years of age from four provinces who were selected by random cluster sampling were examined. Demographic information, education, socioeconomic status, and place of residence were collected through interviews. The cataract status of the study participants was examined by two experienced ophthalmologists using slit lamp photography. The average age of the study participants was 49.52 ± 9.31 and 8891 (55.5%) were female. The overall prevalence of each type of cataract, nuclear sclerosis, cortical, and PSC was 18.90%, 12.65%, 9.20%, and 3.08%, respectively. The results indicated that the prevalence of any type of cataract (adjusted OR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.78-0.92, p < 0.001) and NS cataract (adjusted OR = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.73-0.88, p < 0.001) is lower in women. The risk of developing cataracts increased exponentially with aging. The prevalence of any type of cataract and cortical subtype was higher in rural than urban populations. Also, the risk of developing cataracts decreased with an increase in education level and socioeconomic status and some Iranian races such as Arabs, Azari, and Guilak were also at a higher risk of cataracts. The results of this study indicate the importance of a comprehensive regard of cataract as one of the causes of avoidable blindness in Iran due to its higher prevalence than the global average.

Keywords: Cataract; Cohort; Iran; Persian eye cohort study; Prevalence.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distribution of cataracts among different age groups between two genders.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Distribution of different cataracts across age groups.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Correlation between demographic and socioeconomic variables and the occurrence of specific cataract types.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Distribution of cataract types across different age groups, stratified by WSI categories.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Distribution of cataract types across age groups, categorized by education level.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Distribution of cataract types across age groups, compared between urban and rural residence types.
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