AUTHOR=Li Yang , Hu Qinrui , Li Xiaoxin , Hu Yonghua , Qin Xueying , Wang Bin , Ren Tao 

TITLE=Vision Impairment and Associated Factors in a Coastal Province of Southern China: The Fujian Eye Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Photonics

VOLUME=Volume 3 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/photonics/articles/10.3389/fphot.2022.906917

DOI=10.3389/fphot.2022.906917

ISSN=2673-6853

ABSTRACT=Purpose
To evaluate prevalence and correlations of vision impairment (VI) among urban and rural adults in a coastal province of Southern China.
Design
population-based cross-sectional study
Methods
The study was designed to recruit residents aged over 50 years in randomly sampled communities of Fujian Province from May 2018 to October 2019. Participants underwent a questionnaire about socioeconomic and biological factors and physical and visual examinations. And best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were measured for the participants to assess VI.VI was defined as best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in better eyes of 20/60 or worse, blindness as BCVA in better eyes worse than 20/400.
Results
6823 participants were included in this report. VI prevalence (5.08% vs 2.79%, P<0.001) was higher in inland populations, compared with coastal populations, while there was no significantly difference (2.97% vs 3.73%, P=0.082) between urban populations and rural populations. VI was significantly correlated with biological and sociodemographic factors, including age, educational background, income and refractive error. Sex and urbanization were not statistically significantly associated with VI.
Conclusions
High prevalence of VI in southeast China suggested more need for increasing accessible services and favorable policy for enhancing eye health on rural and inland elderly.