VISUAL IMPAIRMENT AND BLINDNESS 137 TABLE 4-24. AGE-SEX-SPECIFIC BLINDNESS PREVALENCE RATES FOR PERSONS AGES 4-74 (NBS 1981) Nepal Population Blindness Prevalence per 1,000 Blind (<3/60) Sighted Total Male 4-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 Total male 3,788 1,098 5,111 4,642 11,846 14,084 40,569 3,357,008 889,595 697,628 572,705 347,686 178,194 6,042,816 3,360,796 890,693 702,739 577,347 359,532 192,278 6,083,385 1.13 1.23 7.27 8.04 32.95 73.25 6.67 Female 4-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 Total female 4,052 3,053 2,993 8,547 17,396 24,247 60,288 3,379,670 1,042,025 783,552 555,848 335,796 152,070 6,248,961 3,383,722 1,045,078 786,545 564,395 353,192 176,317 6,309,249 1.20 2.92 3.80 15.14 49.25 137.52 9.56 Total 100,857 12,291,77 12,392,634 8.14 tween two countries. To account for these differences in age and sex distribution, an age- sex-standardized blindness prevalence rate was computed for Nepal, using the 1971-72 U.S. population aged 4-74 years as a standard. In other words, we estimated the amount of blindness that would occur in the United States among persons aged 4- 74 years if age-sex- specific blindness prevalence rates found in Nepal occurred in the United States. The age-sex-standardized prevalence for Nepal was 14.9 blind per 1,000 persons, 27 times higher than the blindness prevalence actually found in the United States. Thus, even though the crude prevalence of blindness in Nepal is already 15 times higher than that found in the United States for persons 4- 74 (following the WHO definition of blindness), age-sex standardization suggests that blindness in Nepal is actually 27 times greater than in the United States for persons ages 4-74 (Table 4-25). For a young population such as Nepal, this burden of blindness is potentially tragic. As health, social, and economic conditions im- prove in Nepal, the population can be expected to grow older and
