More adequate provision of eye care services need to 'close the gap' in vision loss in indigenous people
Blindness rates in Indigenous Australians are still much higher than in non-Indigenous Australians, despite a probable fall in overall rates of blindness in Indigenous people in the past 30 years, according to research published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Most blindness was due to readily preventable or treatable causes of vision loss, including cataract, diabetes, refractive error and trachoma.
Prof Hugh Taylor, Harold Mitchell Chair of Indigenous Eye Health at the University of Melbourne, Prof Jill Keeffe, Program Manager of Vision Care Delivery at the Vision Cooperative Research Centre in Sydney, and their co-authors studied a random cluster sample of Indigenous people of all ages from 30 communities across Australia, and compared these with a sample of non-Indigenous adults aged 40 years and older from several remote sites.
They found rates of low vision and blindness were 1.5 per cent and 0.2 per cent in children and 9.4 per cent and 1.9 per cent in adults, respectively.
“Our study showed that although Indigenous children had much less vision impairment than non-Indigenous children, low vision and blindness were much more frequent in Indigenous adults than in mainstream Australian adults,” Prof Taylor said.
Unoperated cataract was a much more important cause of blindness in Indigenous adults (32 per cent) than in mainstream Australian adults (12 per cent), Dr Taylor said, as was refractive error (14 per cent in Indigenous adults compared with four per cent in the mainstream). Trachoma remained the equal third cause of blindness in Indigenous adults (9 per cent).
The study also found that cataract was a much more common cause of low vision in Indigenous adults (27 per cent) than in mainstream adults (14 per cent), and this pattern was similar for diabetic retinopathy (12 per cent compared with two per cent).
“Vision loss in Indigenous adults is predominantly from preventable or treatable causes, and the higher rate of vision loss among Indigenous people reflects a profound underutilisation of eye care services,” Prof Taylor said.
“Adequate provision of accessible eye care services is required to redress this inequality and close the gap for vision loss in Australia.”
The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.
The statements or opinions that are expressed in the MJA reflect the views of the authors and do not represent the official policy of the AMA unless that is so stated.
CONTACT: Prof Jill Keeffe 03 9929 8375 / 0419 886 865