Blindness, Visual Impairment, and Eye Health

Estimates for world-wide statistics on blindness and visual impairment by organizations such as the World Health Organization: 

There are an estimated 37 to 45 million people who are blind.  It is thought that 90% of these live in developing countries.  In developing countries, the incidence of blindness and vision loss increases three times for every decade after age 40. 

About 1 in 100 Africans are blind.  Sixty percent of the blind in Africa are women.  About 7% of the world’s population of blind people live in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Two-thirds of blind individuals worldwide are women. 

Prevalence of childhood blindness is almost 1% of the world population.  Of 1.4M blind children, 22.9% live in sub-Saharan Africa.  Costs for childhood blindness are estimated between $6 billion and $27 billion.  About 70% of childhood blindness is thought to be preventable.  In developing countries, 60%-80% of blind children die within 1-2 years.  In the U.S., five to six percent of infants born at less than two pounds develop blindness. 

The top risk factors for blindness and visual impairment are age, sex, and socioeconomic level. 

Worldwide, cataracts are the leading causes of blindness, affecting about 20M people.  In sub-Saharan Africa, 50% of blindness is attributed to cataracts.  Global need for cataract surgery is 30 million per year, with only about one-third of those surgeries performed. 

Globally about 67M people have glaucoma, resulting in 6.7M cases of blindness.  Half of people with glaucoma do not know they have the disease.  In developing countries, the percentage is even higher. 

Trachoma, a bacterial infection of the eye, is the cause of 18% to 24% of blindness worldwide, accounting for 7 to 9 million blind people. 

Onchocerciasis, the second leading infectious cause of blindness, is responsible for at least 1M cases of blindness or severe visual impairment. 

Lighthouse International offers the following statistics on the causes of blindness in the U.S.: 

Glaucoma:  12.5%

Macular Degeneration:  Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness among people over 65 years old of European descent, accounting for 11.7% of cases of blindness. 

Cataract:  8.3%

Optic Nerve Atrophy:  7%

Diabetic Retinopathy:  Between 12K and 24K Americans per year lose their sight due to diabetic retinopathy.  Diabetic retinopathy accounts for 6.6% of blindness. 

Retinitis Pigmentosa:  Retinitis Pigmentosa is the most prevalent cause of inherited blindness, accounting for 4.7% of blindness in the U.S. 

Myopia:  4.0%

All Other/Unknown Causes:  45.2%

Globally 135M people are visually impaired.  In a slightly different perspective, 124M people are classified as having low vision. 

Two-thirds of visually impaired individuals are women.  Indeed certain eye diseases are known to be more prevalent in women, suggesting at least the possibility of biological, hormonal, or immunological factors. 

At least 100M eyes globally have visual acuity of 6/60 or less due to cataracts.  Perhaps an oversimplification, but this roughly means they can see at 6 feet what people with average or optimal vision see at 60 feet. 

WomensEyeHealth.org identifies major risk factors for blindness and visual impairment as smoking, poor nutrition, and obesity. 

Lighthouse International compiled statistics of visual impairment related to eye diseases and health-related conditions: 

Macular Degeneration:  Macular degeneration affects more than 1.75M Americans, and is expected to affect 3M by 2020 due to the rise of the aging population in America. 

Glaucoma:  Almost 2% of Americans age 40 or over have glaucoma, about 2.2M people.  Statistics vary with ethnicity, with African Americans being affected at a rate of 4%, or over 400K African Americans.  Figures for Caucasians are 1.7% or 1.6M, and Hispanics 1.5% or 132K individuals.   

Cataract:  After the age of 40, 1 in 6 Americans have cataracts, over 20M people.  Twenty percent of females over 40 have cataracts, compared to 14% of males.  Over half of Americans have cataracts by age 80.  By 2020, an estimated 30M Americans will have cataracts. 

Diabetic Retinopathy:  Over 20M Americans are diabetic.  Of those, about 40%, or 6M, have diabetic retinopathy.  About 5% of diabetics have retinopathy serious enough to threaten their sight. 

AIDs Related Vision Impairment:  As many as 40% and as few as 20% of people with AIDs will develop cytomegalovirus retinitis, an inflammation of the retina of the eye that can cause blindness. 

Cancer:  The most common intraocular malignancy of children is retinoblastoma.  Between 300 and 400 cases occur each year.  There are about 1500 cases of chorodial melanoma yearly. 

Corneal Diseases:  In the U.S., injuries and diseases to the cornea of the eye are the most common cause for physician visits for eye care. 

Low Birth Weight:  Prematurity and low birth weight infants are at high risk for retinopathy and blindness. 

Retinitis Pigmentosa:  Retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition, affects 100K Americans.  The recessive gene is carried by 1 in 80 people. 

Usher Syndrome:  Usher syndrome, an inherited condition, results in hearing loss or deafness and progressive visual loss.  Usher syndrome affects 10K to 15K people. 

Refractive Errors:  Myopia, or nearsightedness, affects less than 2% of 5 year olds.  By 12 years old, 15% of children are myopic.  At age 40 and over, 26% of Americans are myopic, requiring some type of assistance, such as glasses to see clearly beyond two to three feet. 

Hyperopia, or farsightedness, affects 10% of individuals over 40.  Between 1% and 4% of children have strabisimus.  One to two percent have amblyopia.  Strabisimus, amblyopia, nystagmus, myopia and hyperopia seldom are the cause of legal blindness.  They can however impact learning, work, and most all activities of daily living. 

In the U.S. alone, visual problems in people over 40 years old cost over $35 billion annually.  This breaks down to $16B for direct medical costs, $11B for “other direct costs”, and $8B in loss of productivity. 

Other direct medical cost estimates include almost $7B for cataracts, over $5B for refractive errors, almost $3B for glaucoma, almost $600M for macular degeneration, and almost $500M for diabetic retinopathy. 

Cataract surgery is the most common surgical procedure among Medicare beneficiaries. 

Want to know more on blindness, visual impairment, and eye health?  Check out the article summaries below, then just click on the links of the articles you are interested in. 

HubMob Team

Each week Princessa picks an interesting topic that reflects current or upcoming events, celebrations, or holidays. Princessa launches a new topic every Monday, in a forum thread in the Hubbers Hangout.

rmcrayne, that’s me. I take all of the hubs in the HubMob RSS, and link to them in a “roundup” hub, like this one! This guarantees everyone a backlink.

wyanjen is our graphic artist. She creates a customized graphic each week for the HubMob (unless her day job gets in the way).

Simone Smith is our HubPages staff advisor for HubMob. She’s our go-to person for technical advice and all the tough questions.

HubMob Basics

Anyone can join the HubMob and write on our topic by starting their hub from Princessa’s forum link. Add the HubMob graphic and RSS, and you are now a HubMobster! Additional tips and instructions are on Princessa’s post.

It is never too late to join a HubMob. Princessa never closes her question. Even after subsequent HubMob topics have been announced, you can still write on an older HubMob topic. Just contact me when you’re done and I will see that you get in the roundup hub.

These resources will provide the basics on HubMob:

Eye Health, Visual Impairment, and Blindness HubMob forum thread

Eye Health, Visual Impairment, and Blindness HubMob RSS

HubMob Topics, How They Are Chosen, by Shirley Anderson

What is a Hubmob and how to join one, by Princessa

How to Write a HubMob Hub: Answering the request, adding the HubMob graphic and the RSS feed, by Princessa

HubMob For Dummies-- Creating a HubMob Hub From Start to Finish by rmcrayne

Thanks for your support!

If you enjoyed my hub and found it helpful, please consider rating it up, commenting, tweeting, digging, or otherwise showing your hub love! 

Join HubPages

Not a member of HubPages?  Sign up and then you can make comments on hubs, follow your favorite hubbers, &/or write your own hubs.