Age-Specific Causes of Bilateral Visual Impairment
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To describe the age-specific prevalence of common eye diseases causing bilateral visual impairment and estimate the total number of Australians with cause-specific visual impairment. METHODS: Cluster-stratified random sample of 5147 residents aged 40 years and older from urban and rural areas and aged-care facilities. Participants completed a standardized interview and eye examination. Four levels of bilateral visual impairment were defined: less than 20/40 to 20/60 and/or homonymous hemianopia (mild), less than 20/60 to 20/200 or better and/or less than 20 degrees to 10 degrees radius field (moderate), less than 20/200 to 10/200 and/or less than 10 degrees to 5 degrees radius field (severe), and less than 1O/ 200 and/or less than 50 radius field (profound). The major cause of vision loss was identified for all participants found to be visually impaired. RESULTS: Uncorrected refractive error was the most common cause of bilateral visual impairment across all decades of life, rising from 0.5% in 40- to 49-year-olds to 13% among those aged 80 years and older. Prevalence of visual impairment due to diabetic retinopathy was 0.7% in 50- to 59-year-olds and 0.8% in those older than 80 years. Visual impairment due to glaucoma had a prevalence of 0.7% among 60-year-olds and rose to 4% of those older than 90 years. The prevalence of visual impairment due to cataract (only present in those aged 70 years or older) rose from 0.6% to 11% in those older than 90 years, and the prevalence of visual impairment due to age-related macular degeneration rose from 0.8% to 16% in those older than 90 years. CONCLUSIONS: The predominant causes of visual impairment change with age. Recognition of these patterns is fundamental for early diagnosis and treatment of eye disease and, where appropriate, referral for rehabilitation.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Neovascular AMD accounts for over 90% of severe central vision loss among patients with AMD.
“Neovascular AMD accounts for over 90% of severe central vision loss among patients with AMD (116, 154, 161).”
From Unraveling a Multifactorial Late-Onset Disease: From Genetic Susceptibility to Disease Mechanisms for Age-Related Macular Degeneration (2009) · cites this paper as [161]
Cites
Bird, A. C., Bressler, N. M., Bressler, S. B., Chisholm, I. H., Coscas, G., Davis, M. D., de Jong, P. T. V. M., Klaver, C. C. W., Klein, B. E. K., Klein, R., et al. (1995) · Survey of Ophthalmology · doi:10.1016/s0039-6257(05)80092-x · Cited by 1,926 · see citing works
Identification of a Gene That Causes Primary Open Angle Glaucoma
Stone, E. M., Fingert, J. H., Alward, W. L. M., Nguyen, T. D., Polansky, J. R., Sunden, S. L. F., Nishimura, D. Y., Clark, A. F., Nystuen, A., Nichols, B. E., et al. (1997) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.275.5300.668 · Cited by 1,432 · see citing works
The 1986 census of population and housing
Cornish, J. K. (1985) · Journal of the Australian Population Association · doi:10.1007/bf03041202 · Cited by 1,417 · see citing works
International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision
National Cancer Institute (2020) · Definitions · doi:10.32388/bd1nux · Cited by 891 · see citing works
Age-Specific Prevalence and Causes of Blindness and Visual Impairment in an Older Population
Klaver, C. C. W. (1998) · Archives of Ophthalmology · doi:10.1001/archopht.116.5.653 · Cited by 889 · see citing works
Visual Acuity and the Causes of Visual Loss in Australia
Attebo, K., Mitchell, P., & Smith, W. (1996) · Ophthalmology · doi:10.1016/s0161-6420(96)30684-2 · Cited by 800 · see citing works
Racial Differences in the Cause-Specific Prevalence of Blindness in East Baltimore
Sommer, A., Tielsch, J. M., Katz, J., Quigley, H. A., Gottsch, J. D., Javitt, J. C., Martone, J. F., Royall, R. M., Witt, K. A., & Ezrine, S. (1991) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejm199111143252004 · Cited by 764 · see citing works
Effect of Ultraviolet Radiation on Cataract Formation
Taylor, H. R., West, S. K., Rosenthal, F. S., Muñoz, B. E., Newland, H. S., Abbey, H., & Emmett, E. A. (1988) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejm198812013192201 · Cited by 731 · see citing works
The Beaver Dam Eye Study: Visual Acuity
Klein, R., Klein, R., Linton, K. L. P., & Mets, D. L. D. (1991) · Ophthalmology · doi:10.1016/s0161-6420(91)32137-7 · Cited by 663 · see citing works
Blindness and Visual Impairment in an American Urban Population
Tielsch, J. M. (1990) · Archives of Ophthalmology · doi:10.1001/archopht.1990.01070040138048 · Cited by 616 · see citing works
Clinical grading and the effects of scaling.
Bailey, I. L., Bullimore, M. A., Raasch, T. W., & Taylor, H. R. (1991) · PubMed · Cited by 505 · see citing works
The prevalence of glaucoma in the melbourne visual impairment project
Wensor, M. D., McCarty, C. A., Stanislavsky, Y. L., Livingston, P. M., & Taylor, H. R. (1998) · Ophthalmology · doi:10.1016/s0161-6420(98)94031-3 · Cited by 381 · see citing works
The Cause-specific Prevalence of Visual Impairment in an Urban Population
Rahmani, B., Tielsch, J. M., Katz, J., Gottsch, J. D., Quigley, H. A., Javitt, J. C., & Sommer, A. H. (1996) · Ophthalmology · doi:10.1016/s0161-6420(96)30435-1 · Cited by 327 · see citing works
Taylor, H. R., Livingston, P. M., Stanislavsky, Y. L., et al. (1997) · American Journal of Ophthalmology · doi:10.1016/s0002-9394(14)70128-x · Cited by 211 · see citing works
Cause-specific prevalence of bilateral visual impairment in Victoria, Australia
VanNewkirk, M. R., Weih, L. M., McCarty, C. A., & Taylor, H. R. (2001) · Ophthalmology · doi:10.1016/s0161-6420(01)00554-1 · Cited by 210 · see citing works
Self-citationBlindness and Visual Impairment in an American Urban Population-Reply
Tielsch, J. M. (1990) · Archives of Ophthalmology · doi:10.1001/archopht.1990.01070120023007 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
Methods for a population-based study of eye disease: the Melbourne Visual Impairment Project
Livingston, P. M., Carson, C., Stanislavsky, Y. L., Lee, S. E., & Taylor, H. R. (1994) · Ophthalmic Epidemiology · doi:10.3109/09286589409047222 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Prevalence and predictors of undercorrected refractive errors in the Victorian population
Liou, H.-L., McCarty, C. A., Jin, C. L., et al. (1999) · American Journal of Ophthalmology · doi:10.1016/s0002-9394(98)00449-8 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Projections of the populations of Australia, States and Territories
Castles, I. (1988) · Australian Bureau of Statistics eBooks · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Age-related macular degeneration
Coleman, H. R., Chan, C.-C., Ferris, F. L., & Chew, E. Y. (2008) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(08)61759-6 · Cited by 542 · see citing works
Swaroop, A., Chew, E. Y., Bowes Rickman, C., & Abecasis, G. R. (2009) · Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics · doi:10.1146/annurev.genom.9.081307.164350 · Cited by 270 · see citing works
Keenan, T. D. L., Kelly, S. P., Sallam, A., Mohamed, Q., Tufail, A., & Johnston, R. L. (2013) · British Journal of Ophthalmology · doi:10.1136/bjophthalmol-2013-303233 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Four-year incidence of macular changes in the Barbados Eye Studies*1
LESKE, M. (2004) · Ophthalmology · doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2003.07.003 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
- Authors
- Weih, L. M.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Weih, LeAnn M.
- Venue
- Archives of Ophthalmology
- Publisher
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Published
- 2000-02-01
- Volume
- 118
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 264
- ISSN
- 0003-9950 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1972254536
- Cited by
- 191
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 12.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Archives of Ophthalmology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Ophthalmology and Visual Impairment Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Ophthalmology › Glaucoma and retinal disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Ophthalmology › Retinal Diseases and Treatments
- Keywords
- bilateral visual impairment, age-specific prevalence, uncorrected refractive error, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, cataract, age-related macular degeneration, homonymous hemianopia, visual field defects, older adults, eye diseases
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Eye Diseases, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Rural Population, Urban Population, Victoria, Vision Disorders, Visual Acuity, Prevalence, Persons with Visual Disabilities, Visually Impaired Persons
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
