Abstract
Globally, more than 250 million people live with visual acuity loss or blindness, and people in the US fear losing vision more than memory, hearing, or speech. But it appears there are no recent empirical estimates of visual acuity loss or blindness for the US. To produce estimates of visual acuity loss and blindness by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and US state. Data from the American Community Survey (2017), National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2008), and National Survey of Children's Health (2017), as well as population-based studies (2000-2013), were included. All relevant data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System were included. The prevalence of visual acuity loss or blindness was estimated, stratified when possible by factors including US state, age group, sex, race/ethnicity, and community-dwelling or group-quarters status. Data analysis occurred from March 2018 to March 2020. The prevalence of visual acuity loss (defined as a best-corrected visual acuity greater than or equal to 0.3 logMAR) and blindness (defined as a logMAR of 1.0 or greater) in the better-seeing eye. For 2017, this meta-analysis generated an estimated US prevalence of 7.08 (95% uncertainty interval, 6.32-7.89) million people living with visual acuity loss, of whom 1.08 (95% uncertainty interval, 0.82-1.30) million people were living with blindness. Of this, 1.62 (95% uncertainty interval, 1.32-1.92) million persons with visual acuity loss are younger than 40 years, and 141 000 (95% uncertainty interval, 95 000-187 000) persons with blindness are younger than 40 years. This analysis of all available data with modern methods produced estimates substantially higher than those previously published.
Highlights
For 2017, this meta-analysis generated an estimated US prevalence of 7.08 (95% uncertainty interval, 6.32-7.89) million people living with visual acuity loss, of whom 1.08 (95% uncertainty interval, 0.82-1.30) million people were living with blindness
1.62 (95% uncertainty interval, 1.32-1.92) million persons with visual acuity loss are younger than 40 years, and 141 000 (95% uncertainty interval, 95 000-187 000) persons with blindness are younger than 40 years
The Vision Problems in the United States (VPUS) study estimated uncorrectable visual impairment and blindness for persons ages 40 years and older to occur in 4.2 million individuals (2.9%) in 2010.3 Using similar methods and data for 2015, Varma et al[4] estimated national and state visual acuity loss or blindness prevalence for persons ages 40 years and older and arrived at a similar estimate of 4.24 million cases (2.8%)
Summary
Ethical Review These research activities were deemed to be not human subjects research by the institutional review board of NORC at the University of Chicago because they are based exclusively on secondary analysis of existing, deidentified data sources. The current study[1] analyzed a greater number of studies, including the classic population-based studies and data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vision and Eye Health Surveillance, which provide data on both national and state-specific rates of visual acuity loss using insurance claims, registries of electronic health records, and self-reported data from national surveys that included populations of all ages and were stratified by race/ ethnicity and sex. The bayesian methods allow the researchers[1] to integrate prior knowledge and assumptions when calculating the meta-analyses
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