Résumé
Background: Senile cataract is an age-related, vision-impairing disease characterized by gradual progressive thickening of the lens of the eye. It is the world's leading cause of treatable blindness. The objective of this study was to identify the percentage and determinants of Senile Cataract in Arar, Northern Saudi Arabia
Methods: The current study is a hospital based conducted in Arar Cental Hospital, for the period from 1/3/ 2016 to 30/9/2017. All elderly patients referred to or admitted to the hospital ocular department and who were clinically suspected to have Cataract were included in the study after obtaining an informed consent from them. Exclusion criteria included patients who refused to participate in the study. Data was collected through face to face interview and filling a questionnaire which included questions about age, sex of participants, signs and symptoms of cataract and it's complications, presence of comorbidities
Results: The study included 134 cases, 95.5% of the studied cases had cataract, of them 53.9% were males and 46.1% females, 53.1% aged between 50-60. One third of the cases had cataract for less than one year, 37.5% for -2 years. Fifty five [43%] reported foggy vision, 17.2% see halos around the light, 15.6% reported problems in seeing bright colors, 12.5% problems with night vision and 11.7% reported fad in colors and 0.6% had complete blindness. Twenty nine [22.7%] of the cases had DM, 17.2% were obese, 16.4% had hypertension, 6.2% had IHD and 28.1% were smokers. Only 49.2% had cataract operation but succeeded in 28.9% of them
Conclusions: We found senile cataract in 95.5% of the studied old aged participants, there was high rates of no operated cataract in older people in North Saudi Arabia. Males had higher rates of cataract, and 0.6% had complete blindness