About 80 percent of Shanghai elderly have eye diseases and over half of people over 70 years old have different degrees of cataract, according to a program conducted by a local eye hospital and Shanghai Senior Citizens Foundation.
Since 2013, the program has offered free eye screening for 1.2 million people aged over 60 and offered cataract surgeries for 40,000 elderly people, including 15,218 charity cataract surgeries for people over 80 years old.
Cataract is the top eye disease for local elderly, covering half of people over 70 and 70 percent of people over 80. Among these people, 5 to 10 percent have suffered serious eye disability or even blindness due to cataract, said Dr Lian Jingcai, president of Shanghai Xinshijie Eye Hospital, which led the program.
Eye disease is closely related with elderly people's life quality.
