ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1617601
Epidemiological Characteristics, Distribution of Axial Length, and Prevalence of Ocular Abnormalities Associated with Congenital Cataract in Northwest China: A 16-Year Cross-Sectional Study(2008–2023)
Provisionally accepted
- Xijing Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi’an, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: We aimed to identify epidemiological characteristics, distribution of axial length and ocular abnormalities associated with congenital cataract in Northwest China. Methods: This observational cross-sectional study evaluated patients with congenital cataracts who underwent surgery between 2008 and 2023. Patient characteristics were compared among different age groups and hospitalization years. Results: A total of 527 patients (527 eyes) underwent cataract surgeries. Of these, 323 patients (61.29%) resided in rural areas and 204 (38.71%) in urban regions. Rural patients exhibited a higher median age at surgery (36[6,72] months) compared to urban counterparts (23.5[4,64] months), with a significant difference between them (Z=-2.543, p=0.011). Median surgical age differs significantly across hospitalization year subgroups(χ²=40.636, p<0.001). Axial length demonstrated accelerated growth prior to 2 years of age, with statistically significant interocular differences in unilateral cases below 24 months (p<0.05). Congenital cataract cases were predominantly diagnosed between 2-6 years (32.26%). Age distribution patterns significantly varied across hospitalization periods (χ²=70.394, p<0.001). Ocular abnormalities alone were present in 293 cases (55.60%), while 40 patients (7.59%) exhibited concurrent systemic abnormalities. Amblyopia emerged as the most frequent ocular comorbidity (23.34%). Conclusions: Rural patients constituted a higher proportion of congenital cataract. The median surgical age demonstrated a significant difference across hospitalization year subgroups. Axial growth patterns showed significant correlations with surgical timing, sex, and laterality. These findings indicate enhanced parental awareness of pediatric ocular health and provide an evidence-based rationale for early intervention strategies in congenital cataracts in Northwest China.
Keywords: congenital cataract, Epidemiology, Axial length, ocular abnormalities, Northwest China
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 27 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 He, Gong, Dou, Zhou and Hou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jian Zhou, Xijing Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi’an, China
Xu Hou, Xijing Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi’an, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.