AIM:To investigate the prevalence of visual impairment, severe visual impairment and blindness, leading cause of these impairments among adults aged ≥50 years in Haikou outskirts of Hainan.METHODS:Random sampling analysis was performed in 850 individuals chosen as the sample, aged ≥50 years in 30 villages of Sanya. Corrected vision, external eye, anterior chamber, lens, vitreous, fundus were examined by ophthalmologists. The prevalence of visual impairmen, severe visual impairment and blindness was calculated, and the main cause was analyzed.RESULTS:Totally 786 individuals among 850 were examined. The response rate was 92.47%, the prevalence of visualimpairmen, severe visual impairment and blindness is 2.67%, 0.64% and 2.54%, resulting chiefly from cataract, posterior segment ocular disease and corneal scar.CONCLUSION:The epidemiological results show that the main cause of visualimpairmen, severe visual impairment and blindness is cataract. But the other causes of blindness such as posterior segment ocular disease and corneal scar can not be neglected.