Cataract prevalence, cataract surgical coverage and barriers to uptake of cataract surgical services in Pakistan: the Pakistan National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey

Abstract

Approximately 570 000 adults are estimated to be blind (<3/60) as a result of cataract in Pakistan, and 3,560000 eyes have a visual acuity of <6/60 because of cataract. Overall, the national surgical coverage is good but underserved populations have been identified.

An estimate of hernia prevalence in Nepal from a countrywide community survey

“…[13] This is in contrast to India, Myanmar and Nigeria where less than 15% of patients with cataracts reported fear as a barrier to surgical care. [26][27][28] However, similar findings from other LMICs demonstrate that this is not unique to Nepal. [3,5,11,29] Though financial and physical barriers to surgical care must be addressed, demonstrating effectiveness and safety of surgery to the public is an important and often-overlooked aspect of improving access to surgical care in LMICs.…”

Visual impairment from age-related cataract among an indigenous African population

“…The cataract surgical coverage (both orthodox and couching) is 27.6%. Although this is an improvement over the 13.6% reported by Oluleye 7 in an earlier survey 8 years ago in the same area and compares with the 22.1% reported by Rabiu,13 it is still a far cry from the 77.1% reported among a Pakistani population 24 and the 56.5% reported in India. 25 The risk factors associated with cataract blindness and VI in our study was in accordance with those in other studies.…”

A study of the efficacy of cryoextraction in various types of cataract

“…While continuing to increase cataract surgical volume to reduce blindness, emphasis must also be placed on improving postoperative visual acuity outcomes. Jadoon Z et al 7 found that 16,507 Adults were examined (95.5% response rate). The crude prevalence of blindness (presenting <3/60 in the better eye) caused by bilateral cataract was 1.75% (95% CI 1.55%, 1.96%).…”