Prevalence of Vision Impairment in Older Adults in Rural China: The China Nine-Province Survey

Describe the prevalence of visual impairment/blindness among older adults in rural populations in China. Population-based, cross-sectional study. We evaluated 45 747 adults > or =50 years of age. Geographically defined cluster sampling was used in randomly selecting a cross-section of residents from a representative rural county within each of 9 provinces in mainland China. Participants were enumerated through village registers followed by door-to-door household visits. Eligible persons were invited to local examination sites for visual acuity (VA) testing and eye examination. Presenting and best-corrected distance VA. Of 50 395 enumerated eligible persons, 45 747 (90.8%) were examined and tested for VA. The prevalence of presenting visual impairment or =20/400 in the better eye was 10.8% and blindness (