Prevalence and Risk Factors for Refractive Errors in the Singapore Malay Eye Survey

• Published in: Ophthalmology (Rochester, Minn.) Vol. 115; no. 10; pp. 1713 - 1719
• Main Authors: Saw, Seang-Mei, MBBD, PhD, Chan, Yiong-Huak, PhD, Wong, Wan-Ling, B(Sc), Shankar, Anoop, MBBS, MSc, Sandar, Mya, MBBS, MMedPH, Aung, Tin, FRCS, PhD, Tan, Donald T.H., FRCS, Mitchell, Paul, FRCS, Wong, Tien Yin, FRCS, PhD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.10.2008; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Asian Continental Ancestry Group - ethnology; Biological and medical sciences; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Health Services Research; Health Surveys; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Ophthalmology; Prevalence; Refractive Errors - ethnology; Risk Factors; Singapore - epidemiology; Urban Population - statistics & numerical data; Vision disorders; Asia; Singapore; Eye; Eye disease; Survey; Prevalence; Surveillance; Vision disorder; Risk factor; Refractive error; Ophthalmology
• ISSN: 0161-6420; 1549-4713
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2008.03.016

Purpose To describe the prevalence and risk factors for myopia and other refractive errors in an urban Malay population in Singapore. Design Population-based, cross-sectional study. Participants Persons of Malay ethnicity, between 40 and 80 years of age, living in Singapore. Methods Refractive error was determined by subjective refraction and if unavailable by autorefraction. Data were analyzed for 2974 adults without previous cataract surgery and who had right eye refraction data. Risk factor data, such as education levels and near work activity, were obtained from a face-to-face interview. Main Outcome Measures Myopia, defined as spherical equivalent (SE) refraction less than −0.5 diopters (D), astigmatism as cylinder less than −0.5 D, hyperopia as SE greater than 0.5 D, and anisometropia as the difference in SE greater than 1.0 D. Results The prevalence of myopia in the right eye was 30.7% (9.4% unilateral myopia and 21.3% bilateral myopia), the prevalence of astigmatism in the right eye was 33.3% (95% confidence interval [CI, 33.0–33.5), the prevalence of hyperopia in the right eye was 27.4% (95% CI, 24.7–27.6), and the prevalence of anisometropia was 9.9% (95% CI, 9.7–10.0). There was a U-shaped relationship between increasing age and the prevalence of myopia, which was partially explained by the age-related increase in the prevalence of cataract. In a multiple logistic regression model, female sex, age, higher educational level, and cataract were associated with myopia. Adults with myopia were more likely to have astigmatism ( P <0.001) in multivariate analyses. Conclusions A quarter of older adult Malay people in Singapore had myopia. Compared with previous reports of similarly aged Singapore Chinese adults, the prevalence of myopia, astigmatism, and anisometropia was lower, whereas the prevalence of hyperopia was similar. Financial Disclosure(s) The authors have no proprietary interest in any materials discussed in this article.