Prevalence of the elderly ocular disease in the eye screening project of Primary Care Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University

Abstract

Introduction: Nowadays, the number of elderly population grows even faster. Ocular disease is common in aging people. Knowledge about prevalence of geriatric ocular diseases will help to care for those patients in the future. Objective was to study the prevalence of ocular disease among elderly in the eye screening project of Primary Care Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University.

Method: People aged 60 years and over, who took an eye exam during 21 - 23 May 2013, were enrolled. The ocular examinations included visual acuity test, measurement of intraocular pressure, and evaluation of anterior and posterior eye segments.

Result: Of the 672 screening cases, there were 460 women (68.5%). The mean age (standard deviation) was 68.6 (6.2) years. There were 31.4% cases of pterygium, 4.5% of cataract which caused visual acuity lower than 20/70, 2.7% of diabetic retinopathy and 2.4% of glaucoma. Age-related macular degeneration, epiretinal membrane, retinal vein occlusion and retinitis pigmentosa were found in 2.2, 2.1, 0.6 and 0.1%, respectively.

Discussion and Conclusion: From the present study, the common ocular diseases in elderly were pterygium, cataract, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma, respectively.

Key words: Prevalence, Ocular disease, Elderly, Screening, Cataract