focus on low vision

Recent Vision Loss Statistics

by Heather Walter

Much of the information about the size of the low vision marketplace is decades old. Thanks to Lighthouse International for helping provide many of the very latest low vision numbers, and the sources for them.

GLOBAL STATS

■ VISUAL IMPAIRMENT: More than 310 million people around the world are visually impaired. Of the 45 million people who are blind, almost two-thirds are women. Source: World Health Organization (WHO), 2009.

■ AGES. More than eight out of 10 people who are visually impaired are age 50 or older. Source: WHO.

■ FREQUENCY. A new case of blindness occurs every five seconds. One child goes blind every 60 seconds. Source: Vision 2020.

DOMESTIC DATA

■ HIGH RISK. More than 60 million Americans are considered to be at high risk for serious vision loss. Source: Zhang et al, 2007, based on data from the National Health Interview Survey of 2002.

■ BOOMERS. Some nine million baby boomers report vision trouble even with contact lenses or glasses. Source: 2007 Harris poll for Lighthouse International.

DISEASES

■ AMD: Approximately 13 million Americans currently have age-related macular degeneration. Source: AMD Alliance International, 2009.

■ BLINDNESS: Among Americans of European descent, AMD is the number-one cause of blindness. Source: The Eye Diseases Prevalence Research Group, 2004.

■ DIABETES. The number of diabetics suffering from diabetic retinopathy will skyrocket from 5.5 million in 2005 to 16 million in 2050. Source: Saaddine, et al, 2008.

■ GLAUCOMA. Fewer than half of the estimated four million Americans who have glaucoma are aware that they have it. Source: Prevent Blindness America, 2008.

FUTURE FOCUS

When the Lighthouse National Survey was conducted in 1995, it was found that 14.5 million Americans age 45 and older indicated difficulty with at least one of these tasks: Recognizing someone across a room, paying bills, identifying different denominations of bills and coins, reading newsprint or headlines, and the functioning outside the house or local neighborhood.

That number is expected to increase to more than 19 million people age 45 and older by 2030. Source: Calculated using the Harris Survey for Lighthouse International, 2007.

■ BOTTOM LINE "The economic impact of vision impairment in the United States is an estimated $51.4 billion." Source: Prevent Blindness America, 2007. EB