Prevalence of Pediatric Cataract in Asia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PURPOSE: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis for estimating the prevalence of pediatric cataracts across Asia. METHODS: A detailed literature search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar databases, from 1990 to July 2021, was performed to include all studies reporting the prevalence of cataracts among children. Two researchers performed the literature search and screening of articles independently, and a third researcher critically reviewed the overall search and screening process to ensure the consistency. The JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for studies reporting prevalence data was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. RESULTS: Of the 496 identified articles, 35 studies with a sample size of 1,168,814 from 12 Asian countries were included in this analysis. The estimated pooled prevalence of pediatric cataracts in Asian children is 3.78 (95% confidence interval: 2.54–5.26)/10,000 individuals with high heterogeneity (I([2]) = 89.5%). The pooled prevalence by each country per 10,000 was 0.60 in Indonesia, 0.92 in Bangladesh, 1.47 in Iran, 2.01 in Bhutan, 3.45 in Laos, 3.68 in China, 4.27 in Thailand, 4.47 in India, 5.33 in Malaysia, 5.42 in Nepal, 9.34 in Vietnam, and 10.86 in Cambodia. CONCLUSIONS: This study utilizes existing literature to identify the prevalence of cataracts in Asian children. Moreover, it highlights the need for more epidemiological studies with large sample sizes from other countries in Asia to accurately estimate the burden of disease.