Ten-Year Incidence of Cataract Surgery in Urban Southern China: The Liwan Eye Study

Abstract

We sought to estimate the 10-year incidence of cataract surgery and its associated factors in an adult urban Chinese population. Population-based cohort study. The Liwan Eye Study is a population-based study initiated in 2003 with 1405 eligible participants. All baseline participants were invited to return for a 10-year follow-up examination with the same protocol. Having incident cataract surgery was defined as participants with native crystalline lens at baseline who underwent cataract surgery performed in either eye during the 10-year follow-up period. A detailed questionnaire was administrated to collect information regarding income, education, and medical history of hypertension and diabetes at baseline examination. Seven hundred ninety-one (86.2%) of 918 eligible survivors attended the 10-year follow-up examination, and 778 participants without previous binocular cataract surgery were eligible for analysis. The overall 10-year incidence of any cataract surgery was 73 of 778 patients (9.4% [95% confidence interval 7.4%-11.7%). The incident cataract surgery increased with age, and increased from 1.5% among participants 50 to 54 years of age, to 23.2% for those ≥75 years of age (P < .001); the same trends were also observed for incident unilateral (P < .001) and bilateral surgery (P < .001). In the multivariate logistic regression model, income >¥1000 renminbi (approximately $141.30) (odds ratio [OR] 0.2, P= .023), education level (OR 0.1, P < .001), and presence of diabetes (OR 3.9, P= .038) had a significant positive effect on cataract surgery incidence. Approximately 1 in 10 participants ≥50 years of age underwent cataract surgery over 10 years. The incidence was lower than that reported in developed countries, suggesting a substantial unmet demand even in a major urban city in China.