Aim To estimate prevalence and characterise clinical features and vision-related quality of life (VR-QoL) of corneal opacities (COs) resulting from infectious keratitis in a rural North Indian population. Methods The Corneal Opacity Rural Epidemiological study was a cross-sectional study conducted in 25 randomly selected clusters of rural Gurgaon, Haryana, India to determine prevalence of corneal disease across all age groups. During house-to-house visits, sociodemographic details, presence, type and clinical characteristics of corneal disease, laterality and resultant visual impairment (VI) was noted. Subgroup analysis of data was performed to understand the prevalence, clinical characteristics, VR-QoL in patients with CO due to infectious keratitis. VR-QoL scores were compared with healthy controls. Results Overall, 65 of 12 113 participants had evidence of infectious keratitis-related CO with a mean age of 63.3 (±14.7 SD) years. Prevalence of infectious keratitis-related CO, including both bilateral (12/65) and unilateral (53/65) cases was 0.54% (95% CI 0.41 to 0.66) seen in a total of 77 eyes of 65 participants. Mean visual acuity was 1.18±0.80 with 30/77 (38.9%) eyes having a presenting visual acuity <3/60. Most of the CO due to infectious keratitis was <3 mm in size (61.03%; 47/77), nebular (42.85%; 33/77) and central (49.35%; 38/77) in location. These participants had significantly higher VR-QoL scores and hence poorer VR-QoL across all three domains of vision function (scores of 28 vs 22, 7.5 vs 5 and 15.5 vs 9, respectively; p<0.0001) when compared with healthy controls. Conclusion The data from this study give an insight into the burden and clinical characteristics of COs resulting from infectious keratitis. VR-QoL is significantly impaired in patients with CO resulting from infectious keratitis, both in bilateral and unilateral cases. Data are available upon reasonable request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplemental information. Not applicable.

中文翻译：

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基于人群的关于感染性角膜炎引起的角膜混浊患者的患病率、临床特征和视力相关生活质量的研究：来自农村角膜混浊流行病学研究的结果

目的 估计北印度农村人口感染性角膜炎引起的角膜混浊 (CO) 的患病率并描述其临床特征和视力相关生活质量 (VR-QoL)。方法 角膜混浊农村流行病学研究是一项横断面研究，在印度哈里亚纳邦古尔冈的 25 个随机选择的农村集群中进行，以确定所有年龄组的角膜疾病患病率。在挨家挨户的访问中，记录了社会人口学细节、角膜疾病的存在、类型和临床特征、偏侧性和由此产生的视力障碍 (VI)。对数据进行亚组分析，以了解感染性角膜炎引起的 CO 患者的患病率、临床特征和 VR-QoL。将 VR-QoL 分数与健康对照进行比较。结果总体而言，12113 名参与者中有 65 名有感染性角膜炎相关 CO 的证据，平均年龄为 63.3 (±14.7 SD) 岁。在 65 名参与者的 77 只眼中，感染性角膜炎相关 CO 的患病率（包括双侧 (12/65) 和单侧 (53/65) 病例）为 0.54%（95% CI 0.41 至 0.66）。平均视力为 1.18±0.80，其中 30/77 (38.9%) 只眼睛的视力 <3/60。大多数由感染性角膜炎引起的 CO 的大小 <3 mm (61.03%; 47/77)、星云状 (42.85%; 33/77) 和中央 (49.35%; 38/77) 位置。与健康对照组相比，这些参与者的 VR-QoL 分数显着更高，因此在所有三个视觉功能领域的 VR-QoL 都较差（分数分别为 28 比 22、7.5 比 5 和 15.5 比 9；p<0.0001）。结论 本研究的数据深入了解了感染性角膜炎引起的 CO 的负担和临床特征。由感染性角膜炎引起的 CO 患者的 VR-QoL 显着受损，无论是双侧还是单侧病例。可根据合理要求提供数据。与研究相关的所有数据都包含在文章中或作为补充信息上传。不适用。