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Systematic review estimates pterygium prevalence in 2023, highlighting the need for targeted public health strategies.
Background: Pterygium contributes to otherwise avoidable vision loss and reduced quality of life worldwide. Despite its treatability and the availability of low-cost interventions, it is often overlooked in global health strategies. We aimed to estimate global, regional, and national pterygium prevalence and examine variations in prevalence by age and sex. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, and MEDLINE for articles reporting on the prevalence of pterygium published from 1 January 1990 to 25 September 2024. For China-specific data, we supplemented this search with articles included in a prior systematic review and meta-analysis, and an updated search of four Chinese databases (CNKI, Wanfang, CBM, and VIP) from 1 January 2016 to 25 September 2024. We developed multilevel multivariable mixed-effects meta-regression models to estimate the global, regional, and national age- and sex-specific prevalences of pterygium in 2023, and an associated factor-based model to adjust national prevalence estimates. Results: We included 103 articles for analysis. The global prevalence of pterygium was 8.22% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 5.31-12.43) in 2023, amounting to 552.85 million (95% CI = 356.93-835.74) cases. We observed that the prevalence increased with age, and that it did not differ substantially by sex, i.e. among men (8.36%; 95% CI = 5.40-12.63) and women (8.08%; 95% CI = 5.21-12.22). We found the highest regional prevalence of pterygium in low- and middle-income countries of the South-East Asia Region (13.52%; 95% CI = 8.98-19.65) in 2023, and the highest national prevalence in Saint Helena (22.57%; 95% CI = 11.79-39.47). Conclusions: Our analysis indicates that pterygium represents a substantial global burden that can progress to severe visual impairment if untreated. Targeted public health strategies are urgently needed to prevent pterygium-related vision loss worldwide. Registration: PROSPERO: CRD420251056115.
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Shan et al. (2026) studied this question.
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