A population-based eye survey of older adults in a rural district of Rajasthan: I. Central vision impairment, blindness, and cataract surgery☆
Section snippets
Methods
The study population was selected through cluster sampling of the Bharatpur population. Villages with less than 850 population, based on the 1991 census, were grouped with an adjacent small village, and villages and towns with more than 1700 were segmented, such that all sampling frame clusters were within 850 to 1700 in population. With an estimated 12.8% of the district population ≥50 years of age, each cluster was expected to yield 110 to 220 such persons.
Sample size requirements were
Results
A total of 2821 households with at least one eligible person ≥50 years of age was enumerated: 1225 households (43.4%) had one person, 1363 (48.3%) had two, and 233 (8.3%) had three or more eligible persons. A total of 4728 persons aged ≥50 years were enumerated, and of these 4284 (90.6%) were examined (Table 1). Response rates ranged from 83.3% to 96.3% across the 25 clusters. Women were more likely to be examined than men (chi-square test, P < 0.001); age, schooling, and area of residence were
Discussion
A strength of the survey was the large sample size, and the sampling plan ensured that each individual living within Bharatpur district had an equal chance of being included.
The 4728 enumerated persons exceeded the 4195 expected on the basis of the 1991 census, reflecting an increase since 1991 in the population 50 years of age and older. Because special effort was made to verify village residency, there is little chance that the increased number was because of people from neighboring areas
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr. G. P. Pokharel, Foundation Eye Care Himalaya, who along with two of the authors (LBE and SRM), served on a technical advisory committee that provided assistance with protocol development, project oversight, and data analysis. We also thank Dr. R. M. Pandey, Ms. Neena John, and Mr. T. D. Pant, all from the All India Institute for Medical Sciences, for their assistance in the survey and with data management. We also acknowledge the clerical assistance of Tina Jones and Stacy
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Supported under World Bank Assisted Cataract Blindness Control Project (CR 2611-IN), Government of India.