Global, regional, national burden and gender disparity of cataract: findings from the global burden of disease study 2019

• Published in: BMC public health 2022-11, Vol.22 (1), p.2068-16, Article 2068
• Main Authors: Fang, Rui, Yu, Yang-Fan, Li, En-Jie, Lv, Ning-Xin, Liu, Zhao-Chuan, Zhou, Hong-Gang, Song, Xu-Dong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Age groups; Aging; Blindness - epidemiology; Blindness - etiology; Care and treatment; Cataract; Cataract - epidemiology; Cataracts; Correlation analysis; Dementia; Demographic aspects; Disability-adjusted life year; Disease; Eye surgery; Female; Females; Gender; Gender differences; Global Burden of Disease; Global Health; Health; Health care disparities; Health policy; Humans; Male; Mortality; Older people; Outdoor air quality; Population; Prevalence; Prevention; Public health; Quality-Adjusted Life Years; Rank tests; Regional development; Regional planning; Regression analysis; Social aspects; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic status; Socioeconomics; Software; Statistics; Surgery; Trends; Vision; Vision loss; Websites
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-022-14491-0

To evaluate the global burden of cataracts by year, age, region, gender, and socioeconomic status using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and prevalence from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study 2019. Global, regional, or national DALY numbers, crude DALY rates, and age-standardized DALY rates caused by cataracts, by year, age, and gender, were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Socio-demographic Index (SDI) as a comprehensive indicator of the national or regional development status of GBD countries in 2019 was obtained from the GBD official website. Kruskal-Wallis test, linear regression, and Pearson correlation analysis were performed to explore the associations between the health burden with socioeconomic levels, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was used to investigate the gender disparity. From 1990 to 2019, global DALY numbers caused by cataracts rose by 91.2%, crude rates increased by 32.2%, while age-standardized rates fell by 11.0%. Globally, age-standardized prevalence and DALYs rates of cataracts peaked in 2017 and 2000, with the prevalence rate of 1283.53 [95% uncertainty interval (UI) 1134.46-1442.93] and DALYs rate of 94.52 (95% UI 67.09-127.24) per 100,000 population, respectively. The burden was expected to decrease to 1232.33 (95% UI 942.33-1522.33) and 91.52 (95% UI 87.11-95.94) by 2050. Southeast Asia had the highest blindness rate caused by cataracts in terms of age-standardized DALY rates (99.87, 95% UI: 67.18-144.25) in 2019. Gender disparity has existed since 1990, with the female being more heavily impacted. This pattern remained with aging among different stages of vision impairments and varied through GBD super regions. Gender difference (females minus males) of age-standardized DALYs (equation: Y = -53.2*X + 50.0, P