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Large study identifies leading causes of low vision, blindness among Malay adults

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The prevalence of bilateral low vision and blindness among a large population of Singaporean Malay adults appears lower when compared with the frequencies found in other Asian studies, according to a new analysis of data from the Singapore Malay Eye Study.

"Similar to most large population-based studies, for practical reasons, [visual acuity] criteria only were used to define visual impairment in our study. Hence, it is possible that the prevalence of visual impairment in our study may be underestimated," the study authors said.

Tien Yin Wong, FRCSE, PhD, and colleagues examined the prevalence and causes of low vision and blindness in a population-based, cross-sectional study of 3,280 Malay adults who were 40 to 79 years of age. Specifically, all participants received standardized ophthalmic examinations to determine visual acuity, best corrected visual acuity and the primary causes of low vision and blindness. Visual acuity data were available for 3,269 participants.

For statistical analysis of visual acuity and BCVA, the researchers used U.S. and modified World Health Organization definitions of blindness and low vision.

According to the U.S. definition of presenting visual acuity, the population-weighted prevalence of bilateral blindness and bilateral low vision were 0.3% and 4.4%, respectively.

After calculating BCVA, the population-weighted prevalence of bilateral blindness reduced to 0.1% and the prevalence of bilateral low vision reduced to 1%, the authors reported.

The investigators identified cataract as the leading cause of unilateral (38.9%) and bilateral (65.2%) blindness. In addition, they identified undercorrected refractive error as the leading cause of unilateral (68.8%) and bilateral (52.2%) low vision, according to the study.

"Diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma were the other leading causes of blindness and low vision," the authors said in the August issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.