TY - JOUR AU - Shrestha, Mohan Krishna AU - Sun, Sunjuri AU - Limbu, Ben AU - Paudel, Manish AU - Khanal, Shankar AU - Pradhan, Bandana AU - Shrestha, Mangala PY - 2021/01/01 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Prevalence and Causes of Visual Impairment and Blindness in Three Ecological Regions of Nepal JF - Nepalese Journal of Ophthalmology JA - Nep J Oph VL - 13 IS - 1 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.3126/nepjoph.v13i1.29217 UR - https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NEPJOPH/article/view/29217 SP - 4-12 AB - <p><strong>Introduction</strong>: Visual impairment and blindness are significant public health issues&nbsp;worldwide. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence and causes of&nbsp;moderate to severe visual impairment (MSVI) and blindness in people aged 15 years&nbsp;and above across three ecological regions of Nepal.</p><p><br><strong>Materials and methods:</strong> A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in one&nbsp;district in each of the three ecological regions of Nepal. Number of participants from&nbsp;each region was distributed as per the prevalence findings of pilot study, with 2815&nbsp;participants enrolled in Dolakha, 1509 in Dhading and 910 in Sarlahi. Intensive training&nbsp;was provided to health workers on how to conduct door-to-door enumeration, visual&nbsp;acuity testing and referral when indicated for comprehensive ocular examination by&nbsp;technicians and ophthalmologists to diagnose and treat ocular morbidities. Collected&nbsp;data were analyzed using standard software. For categorical data, frequency, percentage&nbsp;and 95% CI were calculated and statistical tests were done using Chi-square/Fisher&nbsp;exact test.</p><p><br><strong>Results:</strong> Altogether 5234 participants were enrolled in the study (participation rate&nbsp;96.4%). The overall prevalence of MSVI was 9.5% (495). It was 4.7% (133) in the&nbsp;mountainous region, 11.2% (169) in the Hill and 21.2% (193) in the Tarai. In those&nbsp;aged 15-49 years, MSVI prevalence was 1.5% (52) and 25.1% (433) in ≥50 years. The&nbsp;overall prevalence of blindness was 0.9% (47). It was 0.2% (6) in 15-49 and 2.3%&nbsp;(41) in ≥50 age groups. More than 95% visual impairment and blindness were due&nbsp;to cataract and uncorrected refractive error. Cataract was the leading cause of visual&nbsp;impairment and blindness (290, 53.5%), followed by uncorrected refractive error.</p><p><br><strong>Conclusion:</strong> The prevalence of visual impairment and blindness varied significantly&nbsp;with age, ethnicity and locality. The management of uncorrected refractive error&nbsp;and operable cataract would reduce nine in ten cases of moderate to severe visual&nbsp;impairment and blindness.</p> ER -