Global estimates on the number of people blind or visually impaired by cataract: a meta-analysis from 2000 to 2020

Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study; GBD 2019 Blindness and Vision Impairment Collaborators

doi:10.1038/s41433-024-02961-1

Global estimates on the number of people blind or visually impaired by cataract: a meta-analysis from 2000 to 2020

Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study, GBD 2019 Blindness and Vision Impairment Collaborators

Centre for Healthcare and Communities

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

70 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Background: To estimate global and regional trends from 2000 to 2020 of the number of persons visually impaired by cataract and their proportion of the total number of vision-impaired individuals. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of published population studies and gray literature from 2000 to 2020 was carried out to estimate global and regional trends. We developed prevalence estimates based on modeled distance visual impairment and blindness due to cataract, producing location-, year-, age-, and sex-specific estimates of moderate to severe vision impairment (MSVI presenting visual acuity <6/18, ≥3/60) and blindness (presenting visual acuity <3/60). Estimates are age-standardized using the GBD standard population. Results: In 2020, among overall (all ages) 43.3 million blind and 295 million with MSVI, 17.0 million (39.6%) people were blind and 83.5 million (28.3%) had MSVI due to cataract blind 60% female, MSVI 59% female. From 1990 to 2020, the count of persons blind (MSVI) due to cataract increased by 29.7%(93.1%) whereas the age-standardized global prevalence of cataract-related blindness improved by −27.5% and MSVI increased by 7.2%. The contribution of cataract to the age-standardized prevalence of blindness exceeded the global figure only in South Asia (62.9%) and Southeast Asia and Oceania (47.9%). Conclusions: The number of people blind and with MSVI due to cataract has risen over the past 30 years, despite a decrease in the age-standardized prevalence of cataract. This indicates that cataract treatment programs have been beneficial, but population growth and aging have outpaced their impact. Growing numbers of cataract blind indicate that more, better-directed, resources are needed to increase global capacity for cataract surgery.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2156-2172
Number of pages	17
Journal	Eye (Basingstoke)
Volume	38
Issue number	11
Early online date	9 Mar 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-024-02961-1
Publication status	Published - Aug 2024

Bibliographical note

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Funding

Funders	Funder number
University of Heidelberg
Sightsavers International
Fondation Thea
Fred Hollows Foundation
Lions Clubs International Foundation
Brien Holden Vision Institute
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Not added	175042

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Ophthalmology
Sensory Systems

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10.1038/s41433-024-02961-1

Fagbamigbe2024VoRFinal published version, 2.44 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{38c6957e55eb4d198c777f12ed36227d,

title = "Global estimates on the number of people blind or visually impaired by cataract: a meta-analysis from 2000 to 2020",

abstract = "Background: To estimate global and regional trends from 2000 to 2020 of the number of persons visually impaired by cataract and their proportion of the total number of vision-impaired individuals. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of published population studies and gray literature from 2000 to 2020 was carried out to estimate global and regional trends. We developed prevalence estimates based on modeled distance visual impairment and blindness due to cataract, producing location-, year-, age-, and sex-specific estimates of moderate to severe vision impairment (MSVI presenting visual acuity <6/18, ≥3/60) and blindness (presenting visual acuity <3/60). Estimates are age-standardized using the GBD standard population. Results: In 2020, among overall (all ages) 43.3 million blind and 295 million with MSVI, 17.0 million (39.6\%) people were blind and 83.5 million (28.3\%) had MSVI due to cataract blind 60\% female, MSVI 59\% female. From 1990 to 2020, the count of persons blind (MSVI) due to cataract increased by 29.7\%(93.1\%) whereas the age-standardized global prevalence of cataract-related blindness improved by −27.5\% and MSVI increased by 7.2\%. The contribution of cataract to the age-standardized prevalence of blindness exceeded the global figure only in South Asia (62.9\%) and Southeast Asia and Oceania (47.9\%). Conclusions: The number of people blind and with MSVI due to cataract has risen over the past 30 years, despite a decrease in the age-standardized prevalence of cataract. This indicates that cataract treatment programs have been beneficial, but population growth and aging have outpaced their impact. Growing numbers of cataract blind indicate that more, better-directed, resources are needed to increase global capacity for cataract surgery.",

author = "\{Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study\} and \{GBD 2019 Blindness and Vision Impairment Collaborators\} and Konrad Pesudovs and Lansingh, \{Van Charles\} and Kempen, \{John H.\} and Ian Tapply and Fernandes, \{Arthur G.\} and Cicinelli, \{Maria Vittoria\} and Alessandro Arrigo and Nicolas Leveziel and Serge Resnikoff and Taylor, \{Hugh R.\} and Tabassom Sedighi and Seth Flaxman and Bikbov, \{Mukkharram M.\} and Tasanee Braithwaite and Alain Bron and Cheng, \{Ching Yu\} and \{Del Monte\}, \{Monte A.\} and Ehrlich, \{Joshua R.\} and Ellwein, \{Leon B.\} and David Friedman and Furtado, \{Jo{\~a}o M.\} and Gus Gazzard and Ronnie George and Hartnett, \{M. Elizabeth\} and Jonas, \{Jost B.\} and Rim Kahloun and Moncef Khairallah and Khanna, \{Rohit C.\} and Janet Leasher and Little, \{Julie Anne\} and Vinay Nangia and Michal Nowak and Tunde Peto and Pradeep Ramulu and Fotis Topouzis and Mitiadis Tsilimbaris and Wang, \{Ya Xing\} and Ningli Wang and Rupert Bourne and Konrad Pesudovs and Lansingh, \{Van Charles\} and Kempen, \{John H.\} and Ian Tapply and Fernandes, \{Arthur G.\} and Cicinelli, \{Maria Vittoria\} and Alessandro Arrigo and Nicolas Leveziel and Briant, \{Paul Svitil\} and Fagbamigbe, \{Adeniyi Francis\} and Kurmi, \{Om P.\}",

note = "Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. ",

year = "2024",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1038/s41433-024-02961-1",

language = "English",

volume = "38",

pages = "2156--2172",

journal = "Eye (Basingstoke)",

issn = "0950-222X",

publisher = "Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.",

number = "11",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Global estimates on the number of people blind or visually impaired by cataract

T2 - a meta-analysis from 2000 to 2020

AU - Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study

AU - GBD 2019 Blindness and Vision Impairment Collaborators

AU - Pesudovs, Konrad

AU - Lansingh, Van Charles

AU - Kempen, John H.

AU - Tapply, Ian

AU - Fernandes, Arthur G.

AU - Cicinelli, Maria Vittoria

AU - Arrigo, Alessandro

AU - Leveziel, Nicolas

AU - Resnikoff, Serge

AU - Taylor, Hugh R.

AU - Sedighi, Tabassom

AU - Flaxman, Seth

AU - Bikbov, Mukkharram M.

AU - Braithwaite, Tasanee

AU - Bron, Alain

AU - Cheng, Ching Yu

AU - Del Monte, Monte A.

AU - Ehrlich, Joshua R.

AU - Ellwein, Leon B.

AU - Friedman, David

AU - Furtado, João M.

AU - Gazzard, Gus

AU - George, Ronnie

AU - Hartnett, M. Elizabeth

AU - Jonas, Jost B.

AU - Kahloun, Rim

AU - Khairallah, Moncef

AU - Khanna, Rohit C.

AU - Leasher, Janet

AU - Little, Julie Anne

AU - Nangia, Vinay

AU - Nowak, Michal

AU - Peto, Tunde

AU - Ramulu, Pradeep

AU - Topouzis, Fotis

AU - Tsilimbaris, Mitiadis

AU - Wang, Ya Xing

AU - Wang, Ningli

AU - Bourne, Rupert

AU - Pesudovs, Konrad

AU - Lansingh, Van Charles

AU - Kempen, John H.

AU - Tapply, Ian

AU - Fernandes, Arthur G.

AU - Cicinelli, Maria Vittoria

AU - Arrigo, Alessandro

AU - Leveziel, Nicolas

AU - Briant, Paul Svitil

AU - Fagbamigbe, Adeniyi Francis

AU - Kurmi, Om P.

N1 - Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

PY - 2024/8

Y1 - 2024/8

N2 - Background: To estimate global and regional trends from 2000 to 2020 of the number of persons visually impaired by cataract and their proportion of the total number of vision-impaired individuals. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of published population studies and gray literature from 2000 to 2020 was carried out to estimate global and regional trends. We developed prevalence estimates based on modeled distance visual impairment and blindness due to cataract, producing location-, year-, age-, and sex-specific estimates of moderate to severe vision impairment (MSVI presenting visual acuity <6/18, ≥3/60) and blindness (presenting visual acuity <3/60). Estimates are age-standardized using the GBD standard population. Results: In 2020, among overall (all ages) 43.3 million blind and 295 million with MSVI, 17.0 million (39.6%) people were blind and 83.5 million (28.3%) had MSVI due to cataract blind 60% female, MSVI 59% female. From 1990 to 2020, the count of persons blind (MSVI) due to cataract increased by 29.7%(93.1%) whereas the age-standardized global prevalence of cataract-related blindness improved by −27.5% and MSVI increased by 7.2%. The contribution of cataract to the age-standardized prevalence of blindness exceeded the global figure only in South Asia (62.9%) and Southeast Asia and Oceania (47.9%). Conclusions: The number of people blind and with MSVI due to cataract has risen over the past 30 years, despite a decrease in the age-standardized prevalence of cataract. This indicates that cataract treatment programs have been beneficial, but population growth and aging have outpaced their impact. Growing numbers of cataract blind indicate that more, better-directed, resources are needed to increase global capacity for cataract surgery.

AB - Background: To estimate global and regional trends from 2000 to 2020 of the number of persons visually impaired by cataract and their proportion of the total number of vision-impaired individuals. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of published population studies and gray literature from 2000 to 2020 was carried out to estimate global and regional trends. We developed prevalence estimates based on modeled distance visual impairment and blindness due to cataract, producing location-, year-, age-, and sex-specific estimates of moderate to severe vision impairment (MSVI presenting visual acuity <6/18, ≥3/60) and blindness (presenting visual acuity <3/60). Estimates are age-standardized using the GBD standard population. Results: In 2020, among overall (all ages) 43.3 million blind and 295 million with MSVI, 17.0 million (39.6%) people were blind and 83.5 million (28.3%) had MSVI due to cataract blind 60% female, MSVI 59% female. From 1990 to 2020, the count of persons blind (MSVI) due to cataract increased by 29.7%(93.1%) whereas the age-standardized global prevalence of cataract-related blindness improved by −27.5% and MSVI increased by 7.2%. The contribution of cataract to the age-standardized prevalence of blindness exceeded the global figure only in South Asia (62.9%) and Southeast Asia and Oceania (47.9%). Conclusions: The number of people blind and with MSVI due to cataract has risen over the past 30 years, despite a decrease in the age-standardized prevalence of cataract. This indicates that cataract treatment programs have been beneficial, but population growth and aging have outpaced their impact. Growing numbers of cataract blind indicate that more, better-directed, resources are needed to increase global capacity for cataract surgery.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85199813971

U2 - 10.1038/s41433-024-02961-1

DO - 10.1038/s41433-024-02961-1

M3 - Article

C2 - 38461217

AN - SCOPUS:85199813971

SN - 0950-222X

VL - 38

SP - 2156

EP - 2172

JO - Eye (Basingstoke)

JF - Eye (Basingstoke)

IS - 11

ER -

Global estimates on the number of people blind or visually impaired by cataract: a meta-analysis from 2000 to 2020

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Publisher Correction: Global estimates on the number of people blind or visually impaired by cataract: a meta-analysis from 2000 to 2020 (Eye, (2024), 38, 11, (2156-2172), 10.1038/s41433-024-02961-1)

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