Rapid assessment of avoidable blindness in Uruguay: results of a nationwide survey
OBJECTIVE: To investigate and describe the prevalence and causes of blindness and moderate and severe visual impairment in older adults living in Uruguay. METHODS: All individuals aged ≥ 50 years old living in randomly selected clusters were eligible to participate. In each census enumeration unit s...
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Pan American Health Organization
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:6839b460717f4cfc856a6ce95169ec6b 2023-05-15T15:14:55+02:00 Rapid assessment of avoidable blindness in Uruguay: results of a nationwide survey Marcelo Gallarreta João M. Furtado Van C. Lansingh Juan Carlos Silva Hans Limburg 2014-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doaj.org/article/6839b460717f4cfc856a6ce95169ec6b EN ES PT eng spa por Pan American Health Organization http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1020-49892014000900002&lng=en&tlng=en https://doaj.org/toc/1020-4989 1020-4989 https://doaj.org/article/6839b460717f4cfc856a6ce95169ec6b Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, Vol 36, Iss 4, Pp 219-224 (2014) Salud ocular ceguera prevención & control extracción de catarata Uruguay Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2014 ftdoajarticles 2022-12-31T01:50:44Z OBJECTIVE: To investigate and describe the prevalence and causes of blindness and moderate and severe visual impairment in older adults living in Uruguay. METHODS: All individuals aged ≥ 50 years old living in randomly selected clusters were eligible to participate. In each census enumeration unit selected, 50 residents aged 50 years and older were chosen to participate in the study using compact segment sampling. The study participants underwent visual acuity (VA) measurement and lens examination; those with presenting VA (PVA) < 20/60 also underwent direct ophthalmoscopy. Moderate visual impairment (MVI) was defined as PVA < 20/60-20/200, severe visual impairment (SVI) was defined as PVA < 20/200-20/400, and blindness was defined as PVA < 20/400, all based on vision in the better eye with available correction. RESULTS: Out of 3 956 eligible individuals, 3 729 (94.3%) were examined. The age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of blindness was 0.9% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.5-1.3). Cataract (48.6%) and glaucoma (14.3%) were the main causes of blindness. Prevalence of SVI and MVI was 0.9% (95% CI: 0.5-1.3) and 7.9% (95% CI: 6.0-9.7) respectively. Cataract was the main cause of SVI (65.7%), followed by uncorrected refractive error (14.3%), which was the main cause of MVI (55.2%). Cataract surgical coverage was 76.8% (calculated by eye) and 91.3% (calculated by individual). Of all eyes operated for cataract, 70.0% could see ≥ 20/60 and 15.3% could not see 20/200 post-surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of blindness in Uruguay is low compared to other Latin American countries, but further reduction is feasible. Due to Uruguay's high cataract surgical coverage and growing proportion of people ≥ 50 years old, the impact of posterior pole diseases as a contributing factor to blindness might increase in future. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Uruguay |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English Spanish Portuguese |
topic |
Salud ocular ceguera prevención & control extracción de catarata Uruguay Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
Salud ocular ceguera prevención & control extracción de catarata Uruguay Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Marcelo Gallarreta João M. Furtado Van C. Lansingh Juan Carlos Silva Hans Limburg Rapid assessment of avoidable blindness in Uruguay: results of a nationwide survey |
topic_facet |
Salud ocular ceguera prevención & control extracción de catarata Uruguay Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
OBJECTIVE: To investigate and describe the prevalence and causes of blindness and moderate and severe visual impairment in older adults living in Uruguay. METHODS: All individuals aged ≥ 50 years old living in randomly selected clusters were eligible to participate. In each census enumeration unit selected, 50 residents aged 50 years and older were chosen to participate in the study using compact segment sampling. The study participants underwent visual acuity (VA) measurement and lens examination; those with presenting VA (PVA) < 20/60 also underwent direct ophthalmoscopy. Moderate visual impairment (MVI) was defined as PVA < 20/60-20/200, severe visual impairment (SVI) was defined as PVA < 20/200-20/400, and blindness was defined as PVA < 20/400, all based on vision in the better eye with available correction. RESULTS: Out of 3 956 eligible individuals, 3 729 (94.3%) were examined. The age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of blindness was 0.9% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.5-1.3). Cataract (48.6%) and glaucoma (14.3%) were the main causes of blindness. Prevalence of SVI and MVI was 0.9% (95% CI: 0.5-1.3) and 7.9% (95% CI: 6.0-9.7) respectively. Cataract was the main cause of SVI (65.7%), followed by uncorrected refractive error (14.3%), which was the main cause of MVI (55.2%). Cataract surgical coverage was 76.8% (calculated by eye) and 91.3% (calculated by individual). Of all eyes operated for cataract, 70.0% could see ≥ 20/60 and 15.3% could not see 20/200 post-surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of blindness in Uruguay is low compared to other Latin American countries, but further reduction is feasible. Due to Uruguay's high cataract surgical coverage and growing proportion of people ≥ 50 years old, the impact of posterior pole diseases as a contributing factor to blindness might increase in future. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Marcelo Gallarreta João M. Furtado Van C. Lansingh Juan Carlos Silva Hans Limburg |
author_facet |
Marcelo Gallarreta João M. Furtado Van C. Lansingh Juan Carlos Silva Hans Limburg |
author_sort |
Marcelo Gallarreta |
title |
Rapid assessment of avoidable blindness in Uruguay: results of a nationwide survey |
title_short |
Rapid assessment of avoidable blindness in Uruguay: results of a nationwide survey |
title_full |
Rapid assessment of avoidable blindness in Uruguay: results of a nationwide survey |
title_fullStr |
Rapid assessment of avoidable blindness in Uruguay: results of a nationwide survey |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rapid assessment of avoidable blindness in Uruguay: results of a nationwide survey |
title_sort |
rapid assessment of avoidable blindness in uruguay: results of a nationwide survey |
publisher |
Pan American Health Organization |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doaj.org/article/6839b460717f4cfc856a6ce95169ec6b |
geographic |
Arctic Uruguay |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Uruguay |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, Vol 36, Iss 4, Pp 219-224 (2014) |
op_relation |
http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1020-49892014000900002&lng=en&tlng=en https://doaj.org/toc/1020-4989 1020-4989 https://doaj.org/article/6839b460717f4cfc856a6ce95169ec6b |
_version_ |
1766345313498431488 |