Blindness more prevalent in women than men in Pakistan survey

Pakistani women are 30% more likely to be blind than men, a large survey found.

Rupert R.A. Bourne, MD, FRCOphth, and colleagues at the International Centre for Eye Health, London, and at the Pakistan Institute of Community Ophthalmology in Peshawar, Pakistan, surveyed a nationally representative, cross-sectional sample of 16,507 Pakistani adults aged 30 years and older. They found an age- and gender-standardized blindness prevalence of 2.7%. Older age and female sex were both significantly associated with logMAR visual acuities of less than 6/60, according to the study.

The researchers also found that persons who had attended primary school were 60% less likely to have vision less than 6/60 compared to those who had never been to school. Rural areas had a 3.8% prevalence of blindness, which was significantly higher than the 2.5% prevalence of blindness in urban areas (P < .001), according to the study.

The authors theorized that barriers specific to Pakistani women may have resulted in lower utilization of eye care services, according to a press release from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

The study is published in the November issue of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.