Multi-ethnic study for eye research in Asia

Asia is home to nearly 50% all the world's 40 million blind people so it comes as quite a surprise that knowledge about major eye diseases is limited.

Recent research from the Singapore Eye Research Institute is now shedding more light on this situation with a series of multi-ethnic studies particularly concentrating on the importance of the early detection of eye diseases in Asia.

The project is a world first and consists of 3 x 2 year studies involving more than 10,000 randomly pre-selected Chinese, Malay and Indian participants living in Singapore.

The project aims to gather critical information on the causes and impacts of vision-threatening diseases effecting Asians. The Institute has already discovered some interesting findings with the Malay and Indian studies. Examples being, a considerable number in the Malay group were unaware of their condition. 90% of glaucoma cases were not previously diagnosed while 30 per cent of diabetic patients with retina damage had never seen an eye doctor!

Professor Tien Yin, director, Singapore Eye Research Institute, said: "40% of the Indian people living in Singapore have low vision in at least one eye and the majority of this is caused by cataract... it could be easily preventable or treated."

The Singapore Chinese Eye Study is currently in its final phase. This particular study is unique from the other two because data collected from it will be compared to information from two other Chinese cohorts in Los Angeles and Guangzhou.

This will allow researchers to examine how various lifestyle factors influence eye diseases in Chinese people across the various communities.

Sourced from Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia