Prevalence and causes of blindness and distance visual impairment in Chinese adult population in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Abstract This cross-sectional study aims to investigate the prevalence and causes of visual impairment (VI) and blindness in Jiangsu Province, China in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (n = 13,208, aged 18–93) underwent comprehensive ocular examinations. The prevalence and causes of binocular VI (presenting visual acuity [VA] ≥ 20/400 and < 20/63 in the better eye) and blindness (presenting VA < 20/400 in the better eye) were assessed according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. The estimation of refractive error prevalence was conducted using the following classification: myopia ≤ − 0.50 diopters (D), high myopia ≤ − 6.00 D, hyperopia ≥ 0.50 D, and anisometropia ≥ 1.00 D. The overall prevalence of binocular VI and blindness was 21.04% (95% confidence interval [CI] 20.35–21.74%) and 0.47% (95% CI 0.37–0.60%). The highest prevalence of binocular VI was in the population aged 18–24 years old (46.29%, [95% CI 44.30–48.28%]), those with education at university and above (43.47%, [95% CI 41.93–45.02%]), students (54.96%, [95% CI 52.73–57.17%]). Uncorrected refractive error (URE) was the leading cause of presenting binocular VI (93.40%) and blindness (50.79%). The prevalence of myopia was 54.75% (95% CI 53.90–55.60%). Actions are needed to control URE and myopia within the adult Chinese population, with a particular emphasis on the younger, well-educated demographic.

Keywords

• Epidemiology
• Prevalence
• Visual impairment
• Blindness
• Refractive error
• COVID-19