Prevalence, associations and characteristics of severe uncorrected refractive error in the Australian National Eye...

In Australia, nationally representative data of the burden and associations of severe uncorrected refractive error are scarce.

To report the prevalence and characteristics of severe uncorrected refractive error in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Population-based cross-sectional study.

A total of 3098 non-Indigenous Australians aged 50 to 98 and 1738 Indigenous Australians aged 40 to 92 living in 30 randomly selected Australian sites were examined.

Severe uncorrected refractive error was defined as an improvement of ≥2 lines on the logMAR chart in one or both eyes in participants with a presenting visual acuity <6/12.

Severe uncorrected refractive error RESULTS: Prevalence of severe uncorrected refractive error was 11.0% (95% confidence interval 9.3-13.0) in non-Indigenous and 14.5% (12.5-16.7) in Indigenous Australians. Eighty-two percent of non-Indigenous and 77% of Indigenous participants had a spherical equivalent refraction between -2.00D and +2.00D. Indigenous Australians who were older (odds ratio [OR] for 70-79 years vs 40-49 years = 3.59), resided in outer regional areas (OR = 1.78) and did not have an eye examination in the previous 2-years (OR = 1.50) were associated with higher odds of severe uncorrected refractive error. Geographical remoteness (OR = .68 for inner regional), male gender (OR = 1.30), older age (OR for 70-79 years vs 50-59 years = 1.51) and failure to have an eye examination in the previous 2-years (OR = 2.06) were associated with severe uncorrected refractive error among non-Indigenous participants.

Increased public awareness of the importance of regular optometric examinations may be required in groups at high risk of severe uncorrected refractive error.