Nationwide age-, sex-, cause-specific burden of blindness and vision impairment in China.

Population ageing emerged as the predominant driver, accounting for 164.25% of the cataract-related burden increase.

Women had a higher burden than men (53.79% of cases; 54.87% of years lived with disability), and the burden peaked at older ages.

Uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts were the leading aetiologies, constituting 50.65% of moderate vision impairment and 35.08% of blindness.

Projections indicate that by 2040, the age-standardised years lived with disability rate for vision impairment may nearly double from 2021 levels, reaching 596.4 (95% UI 72.0 to 1240.4) per 100 000 population.