Incidence and progreion of cataract in the Melbourne Viual Impairment Project

Purpoe To determine the 5-year incidence and progreion of cataract and cataract urgery in the Melbourne Viual Impairment Project. Deign Propective cohort tudy. Method Demographic information including race, ex, age, and education level wa collected at baeline. Cortical cataract wa defined a 4/16 or greater opacity; progreion wa defined a a more than 2/16 increae. Nuclear cataract wa defined a Wilmer tandard grade 2 or higher; progreion wa defined a more than 0.5 increae. Poterior ubcapular (PC) cataract wa defined a opacity 1 mm2 or greater; progreion wa defined a greater than 1 mm2 increae. Reult Of the 3,040 participant eligible to attend follow-up examination, 2,594 (85% of thoe eligible) participated. The mean age of participant at follow-up wa 62.5 year, and 55% were female. The percentage of patient who had at leat one len extracted over 5 year increaed from 0.5% of thoe aged 40 to 49 year at baeline to 35.7% of thoe aged 80 year or more at baeline. The overall incidence of the three type of cataract wa a follow: cortical 7.7% (95% confidence limit [CL] = 5.8–9.8), nuclear 16.4% (95% CL = 12.1–20.8), and PC 7% (95% CL = 5.3–8.7). The overall progreion of cataract wa cortical 14.3% (95% CL = 10.2–18.3), nuclear 19.3% (95% CL = 15.9–22.7), and PC 20% (95% CL = 8.7–31.1). The incidence and progreion rate increaed ignificantly by age, but the rate were not ignificantly different by ex. Concluion Thee cataract incidence data confirm the public health importance of cataract in Autralia. The data alo upport the need to plan both primary prevention program and adequate urgical ervice to meet the anticipated increae in demand with the aging population