[An epidemiologic survey of blindness and low vision in persons over 45 years old in Doumen County].

An epidemiologic survey of blindness and low vision in persons over 45 years old in Doumen County, Guangdong Province was carried out in 1991. The sample size was 932 subjects. We found that the impairment of vision < 0.3 accounted for 10.94%. The prevalences of bilateral blindness and low vision were 1.61% and 3.22%, respectively. Both the prevalences of blindness and low vision were increased with age. The leading cause of blindness was cataract (45.20%) and the second, corneal opacity (16.70%).