Prevalence of blindness and low vision by age, sex, ethnicity, and residence
| Prevalence of blindness | Prevalence of low vision | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Respondents | Crude % (SE) | *Age adjusted % (SE) | Estimated population (SE) | Crude % (SE) | *Age adjusted % (SE) | Estimated population (SE) | |
| Definition: 1, Blindness: presenting visual acuity of worse than 3/60 in the better eye with available means of correction; 2, Low vision: presenting visual acuity of worse than 6/18 but equal to or better than 3/60 in the better eye with available means of correction. | |||||||
| *Age adjusted to the 1996 Malaysian population. | |||||||
| Age (years) | |||||||
| 0–9 | 4690 | 0.05 (0.03) | – | 2233 (1197) | 0.40 (0.09) | – | 18 881 (4706) |
| 10–19 | 3814 | 0.13 (0.07) | – | 5502 (2931) | 1.63 (0.32) | – | 67 667 (13 886) |
| 20–29 | 2341 | 0.20 (0.11) | – | 6410 (3691) | 1.38 (0.26) | – | 44 541 (8755) |
| 30–39 | 2477 | 0.16 (0.16) | – | 4380 (4380) | 0.89 (0.19) | – | 24 597 (5514) |
| 40–49 | 2081 | 0.31 (0.16) | – | 6159 (3235) | 2.22 (0.34) | – | 43 780 (6999) |
| 50–59 | 1263 | 0.50 (0.23) | – | 5872 (2712) | 4.80 (0.78) | – | 56 874 (9679) |
| 60–69 | 840 | 0.69 (0.36) | – | 4859 (2579) | 12.26 (1.47) | – | 86 507 (11 718) |
| 70+ | 521 | 4.77 (1.12) | – | 18 844 (4624) | 30.59 (2.62) | – | 120 851 (13 743) |
| Sex | |||||||
| Male | 8476 | 0.25 (0.06) | 0.26 (0.07) | 24 180 (6160) | 1.98 (0.19) | 2.10 (0.19) | 190 743 (20 427) |
| Female | 9551 | 0.32 (0.07) | 0.30 (0.07) | 30 079 (7294) | 2.88 (0.24) | 2.80 (0.19) | 272 955 (27 265) |
| Ethnicity | |||||||
| Malay | 9700 | 0.21 (0.05) | 0.23 (0.06) | 20 110 (4977) | 2.42 (0.19) | 220 125 (26 535) | |
| Chinese | 4305 | 0.33 (0.11) | 0.29 (0.11) | 17 399 (5938) | 2.53 (0.28) | 2.11 (0.22) | 134 979 (17 696) |
| Indian | 1154 | 0.13 (0.10) | 0.24 (0.18) | 1837 (1400) | 2.42 (0.52) | 2.85 (0.52) | 34 629 (7772) |
| Indigenous | 1740 | 0.57 (0.24) | 0.64 (0.22) | 13 668 (5928 | 2.88 (0.49) | 3.32 (0.46) | 68 829 (13 537) |
| Residence | |||||||
| Urban | 8922 | 0.29 (0.05) | 0.29 (0.07) | 25 973 (6833) | 2.23 (0.23) | 2.27 (0.18) | 202 371 (24 142) |
| Rural | 9015 | 0.28 (0.07) | 0.28 (0.06) | 28 286 (7548) | 2.59 (0.23) | 2.61 (0.19) | 261 327 (29 415) |
| All | 18027 | 0.28 (0.05) | 0.29 (0.05) | 54 259 (10 289) | 2.42 (0.17) | 2.44 (0.13) | 463 698 (40 422) |