Prevalence of Lens Opacities in Asian Malays

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the prevalence of lens opacities and cataract surgery in an older Malay population in Singapore.

Methods: The Singapore Malay Eye Study is a population-based cross-sectional study of 3280 (78.7% response rate) Malay adults aged 40–80 years. Participants underwent a standardized clinical eye examination. Digital slit-lamp and retroillumination photographs were taken of both eyes of each participant and graded for age-related nuclear, cortical and posterior subcapsular (PSC) cataract, following the Wisconsin Cataract Grading System. Other lens opacities, including retrodots and vacuoles, were also graded. Information on medical and lifestyle factors was collected using questionnaires. The study sample was directly age-standardized to the Malay population in Singapore using the 2000 Singapore population census.

Results: A total of 3054 (97.7%) and 3113 (99.6%) participants had gradable Topcon slit lamp and Neitz photographs, respectively. The overall age-adjusted prevalence of any cataract was 29.1%, and that of nuclear, cortical and PSC cataract were 12.9% (95% confidence interval, CI, 11.2–13.1%), 21.2% (95% CI 19.8–22.7%) and 9.7% (95% CI 8.8–10.8%), respectively. Age-adjusted prevalence of cataract surgery was 4.7% (95% CI 4.2–5.4%). Prevalence of all three cataract types and cataract surgery increased with age. Age-adjusted prevalence for retrodots and vacuoles were 19.7% (95% CI 18.3–21.1%) and 64.3% (95% CI 61.1–67.6%), respectively. Retrodots were found to be associated with prevalence of all three cataract types, while vacuoles were associated with cortical and PSC cataract prevalence.

Conclusion: Lens opacities were common in this urban Malay population. Retrodots and vacuoles were found to be associated with age-related cataract.

KEYWORDS::

• Age-related cataract
• Population-based study
• Epidemiology
• Lens opacities
• Asia

Declaration of interest: This study was funded by the National Medical Research Council, Singapore, grant 0796/2003 and the Biomedical Research Council, Singapore grant 501/1/25-5. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.