Objective
To determine associations between educational level and ophthalmic diseases in Chinese.
Methods
The population-based Beijing Eye Study, performed in 2006, enrolled 3,251 participants (age: 45+ years) out of 4,439 subjects
invited to participate (response rate: 73.2%). The participants underwent an interview including questions concerning their
educational level, and a detailed ophthalmic examination.
Results
Data on the level of education were available for 3,221 (99.1%) subjects, with 1,484 (46.1%) subjects living in the rural
region. The mean age was 60.4 ± 10.1 years (range: 45–89 years). In a multivariate analysis, a higher level of education was
significantly associated with myopic refractive error, higher best-corrected visual acuity, lower degree of nuclear cataract,
and lower prevalence of angle-closure glaucoma, and with the systemic parameters of lower age, male gender, urban region,
taller body height, and lower body mass index. It was not significantly associated with intraocular pressure, amount of subcapsular
cataract and cortical cataract, cataract surgery, and the prevalences of diabetes mellitus, retinal vein occlusions, chronic
open-angle glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration, and with the systemic parameters of fasting serum concentrations
of glucose, high-density lipoproteins, low-density lipoproteins, cholesterol and triglycerides, systolic and diastolic blood
pressure.
Conclusions
In the Greater Beijing area, a higher level of education was associated with myopic refractive error, higher best-corrected
visual acuity, and lower prevalence of nuclear cataract and angle-closure glaucoma, after adjusting for the systemic parameters
of younger age, male gender, urban region, taller body height, lower body mass index less smoking and less alcohol consumption.
Educational level was not significantly associated with intraocular pressure, cortical cataract, blood pressure, and frequencies
of age-related macular degeneration, retinal vein occlusions and chronic open-angle glaucoma.