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The burden of vision loss due to cataract in China: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Eye volume 38, pages 885–892 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Objective

To provide a reference for future policy and measure formulation by conducting a detailed analysis of the burden of vision loss due to cataract by year, age, and gender in China from 1990 to 2019.

Methods

Data on the prevalence and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to cataract in China and neighboring and other G20 countries were extracted from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study to observe the changing trends of vision loss.

Results

The number and rate of all-age prevalence and DALYs for cataract in China increased significantly from 1990 to 2019. The age-standardized DALYs rate witnessed a slowly declining trend by 10.16%. And the age-standardized prevalence increased by 14.35% over the 30-year period. Higher prevalence and DALYs were observed in female population from 1990 through 2019, with little improvement over the decades(all p < 0.001). The disease burden of cataract is higher in middle-aged and elderly people. Blindness accounted for the largest proportion of vision impairment burden caused by cataract in China. The age-standardized prevalence and DALY rate of cataract in China were lower than those in India and Pakistan, but higher than those in Russia, South Korea, North Korea, Singapore, and Japan.

Conclusions

In the past 30 years, although the age-standardized DALYs rate has decreased slightly in China, the all-age prevalence and DALYs have both increased. This study highlights the importance of reducing cataract burden by providing timely and easily accessible quality care, especially in females and the elderly population.

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Fig. 1: DALYs of cataract from 1990 to 2019 in China.
Fig. 2: Prevalence of cataract from 1990 to 2019 and DALYs of cataract in 1990 and 2019 in China.
Fig. 3: Age-standardized DALYs rate of cataract in China and neighboring countries.
Fig. 4: Age-standardized DALYs rates of cataract in G20 nations.

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Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (82271067). The funding organizations had no role in the design or conduct of this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Tongren Hospital, Beijing, China

    Rui Fang, Pei-Lin Yue, Xue-Fei Ding, Ning-Xin Lv, Yu-Xuan Jia, Zhao-Chuan Liu & Xu-Dong Song

  2. Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100730, China

    Rui Fang, Pei-Lin Yue, Xue-Fei Ding, Ning-Xin Lv, Yu-Xuan Jia, Zhao-Chuan Liu & Xu-Dong Song

  3. Beijing Tongren Eye Center, Beijing, China

    Zhao-Chuan Liu & Xu-Dong Song

  4. Beijing Ophthalmology& Visual Sciences Key Lab, Beijing, China

    Zhao-Chuan Liu & Xu-Dong Song

  5. The State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy and Key Laboratory of Molecular Drug Research, Nan kai University, Tianjin, China

    Hong-Gang Zhou

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  1. Rui Fang
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Contributions

RF developed the concept for the manuscript, enrollment of participants, data gathering and drafting the manuscript, and conducted data analysis. XFD, PLY, NXL, ZL and YXJ critically verified the data obtained from the GBD database. HGZ and XDS drafted and revised the manuscript. XDS and HGZ contributed equally to this work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xu-Dong Song.

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Fang, R., Yue, PL., Ding, XF. et al. The burden of vision loss due to cataract in China: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Eye 38, 885–892 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-023-02798-0

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