Ministry of health medical service administration

Background: The prevalence of visual impairment and blindness has increasing trend and is one of the public health problems in Vietnam as well as in all over the world. The research aims to identify the prevalence of visual impairment; blindness and the cause of blindness which are necessary to define the demand of people for eye care, blindness prevention and control. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study aims to identify the prevalence of visual impairment and blindness of people aged 50 and over was conducted in Bac Ninh from May to July, 2015. The sample size of 2000 people have eye checked which consists of 821 males, 1179 females. The research used random sampling method, choosing 40 groups and investigating 50 people in each group based on rule of door-to-door houses. The data was entered and analyzed on software RAAB6. Result: The research findings showed that the prevalance of visual impairment from mild to severe (presenting 3/60≤VA<6/12 in the better eye) up to blindness (presenting VA<3/60 in the better eye) in one eye is 26.5% in the both two eyes was 20,5%. In which, the prevalence of bilateral blindness accounted for 3.6%, the prevalence of moderate to severe visual impairment in both two eyes (3/60≤VA<6/18) accounted for 10.9% in the total number of people aged over 50; in which, prevalence of moderate to severe visual impairment among females (12.6%) was significantly higher than those in males (8.3%). The causes of blindness mainly were cataract without surgery (accounted for 53.7%); posterior segment disease (accounted for 20.2%); corneal scars due to other causes (accountedfor 10.3%). Total avoidable blindness causes was 73.6%. The average cataract surgical coverage (CSC) accounted for the individual eye of visual imparment with VA<3/60 was 51.2% and with all VA<6/18 was 25.9%. The average CSC accounted in persons with VA <3/60 and VA <6/18 were 63.4% and 32.3% respectively. After cataract surgery, the rate of good visual acuity was 36.6% and the rate of low vision and blindness was 30.3%. The greatest barriers preventing patients from surgery were far distance to surgery places (43.0%), feeling “no need” for surgery (24.6%) and being “fear” for surgery (13.8%) or being afraid of poor outcome.