WORLD VIEW

Prevalence and causes of blindness and low vision in Timor-Leste

Jacqueline Ramke¹, Anna Palagyi¹, Thomas Naduvilath², Renee du Toit¹ and Garry Brian

¹ The International Centre for Eyecare Education, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
² The Institute for Eye Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Correspondence to:
G Brian, FRANZCO, The Fred Hollows Foundation (New Zealand), Auckland 1030, New Zealand; grbrian{at}tpg.com.au

Aim: To estimate the prevalence and causes of blindness and low vision in people aged 40 years in Timor-Leste.

Method: A population-based cross-sectional survey using multistage cluster random sampling to identify 50 clusters of 30 people. A cause of vision loss was determined for each eye presenting with visual acuity worse than 6/18.

Results: Of 1470 people enumerated, 1414 (96.2%) were examined. The age, gender and domicile-adjusted prevalence of functional blindness (presenting vision worse than 6/60 in the better eye) was 7.4% (95% CI 6.1 to 8.8), and for blindness at 3/60 was 4.1% (95% CI 3.1 to 5.1). The adjusted prevalence for low vision (better eye presenting vision of 6/60 or better, but worse than 6/18) was 17.7% (95% CI 15.7 to 19.7). Gender was not a risk factor for blindness or low vision, but increasing age, illiteracy, subsistence farming, unemployment and rural domicile were risk factors for both. Cataract was the commonest cause of blindness (72.9%) and an important cause of low vision (17.8%). Uncorrected refractive error caused 81.3% of low vision.

Conclusion: Strategies that make good-quality cataract and refractive error services available, affordable and accessible, especially in rural areas, will have the greatest impact on vision impairment.

Abbreviations: RACSS, Rapid Assessment of Cataract Surgical Services

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