The current status of visual disability in the elderly population of Taiwan

Abstract
This study was conducted to explore the prevalence and the associated factors of visual impairment and blindness among the elderly Taiwanese population. A nationwide population-based visual health care screening program of elderly people aged 65 years or older was conducted between 1 July 2002 and 31 December 2002 in Taiwan. Based on the same standardized protocol used by the Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health, and a stratified random sampling design, 3160 out of 5000 elderly subjects were selected by a two-stage visual care screening method. The overall response rate was 63.2%. The mean age of the elderly participants was 72.4 ± 5.1 years. The overall prevalence of glaucoma, corneal diseases, trauma, cataracts, myopic or diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration among the elderly population was 2.1%, 6.3%, 0.9%, 60.2%, 7.5%, and 2.9%, respectively. The overall prevalence of visual disability (visual acuity of the better eye Jpn J Ophthalmol 2005;49: 166–172 © Japanese Ophthalmological Society 2005

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: