Internal medicine

Sociology

Pterygium

Population

Alcohol consumption

Meta-analysis

Demography

Odds ratio

Surgery

Chemistry

Alcohol

Confidence interval

Risk factor

Biochemistry

Medicine

Environmental health

Survey of Ophthalmology

The present study was conducted to determine the global prevalence and risk factors for pterygium. Three thousand two hundred fifty-five articles were identified, of which 68 articles with a total of 415,911 participants from 24 countries were included in the final analysis. The prevalence of pterygium in the total population was 12% (95% confidence interval [CI] 11–14%). The lowest and highest prevalence rates were, respectively, 3% (95% CI 0.0–9%) in the 10- to 20-year-age group and 19.5% (95% CI 14.3–24.8%) in those over 80 years.

Prevalence and risk factors of pterygium: a systematic review and meta-analysis