We're watching the world go blind, researchers say:
As 2020 comes to a close, an international group of researchers set out to provide updated estimates on the number of people that are blind or visually impaired across the globe, to identify the predominant causes, and to illustrate epidemiological trends over the last 30 years.
"This is important because when we think about setting a public health agenda, knowing the prevalence of an impairment, what causes it, and where in the world it's most common informs the actions that key decision makers like the WHO and ministries of health take to allocate limited resources," says Joshua Ehrlich, M.D., M.P.H., a study author and ophthalmologist at Kellogg Eye Center.
[...] "Working as a global eye care community, we need to now look at the next 30 years," Ehrlich says. "We hope to take these findings and create implementable strategies with our global partners through our Kellogg Eye Center for International Ophthalmology so fewer people go blind unnecessarily."
In an effort to contribute to the WHO initiative VISION 2020: The Right to Sight, the researchers updated estimates of the global burden of vision loss and provided predictions for what the year 2050 may look like.
They found that the majority of the 43.9 million people blind globally are women. Women also make up the majority of the 295 million people who have moderate to severe vision loss, the 163 million who have mild vision loss and the 510 million who have visual impairments related to the unmet need for glasses, specifically poor near vision.
By 2050, Ehrlich, Del Monte, and Robin predict 61 million people will be blind, 474 million will have moderate and severe vision loss, 360 million will have mild vision loss and 866 million will have visual impairments related to farsightedness.
"Eliminating preventable blindness globally isn't keeping pace with the global population's needs," Ehrlich says. "We face enormous challenges in treating and preventing vision impairment as the global population grows and ages, but I'm optimistic of a future where we will succeed because of the measures we take now to make a difference."
Journal Reference:
Rupert Bourne, Jaimie D Steinmetz, Seth Flaxman. Trends in prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment over 30 years: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study, The Lancet Global Health (DOI: 10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30425-3)
(Score: 3, Informative) by PiMuNu on Friday December 11 2020, @11:23AM (2 children)
> We're Watching the World Go Blind, Researchers Say
... of course, the researchers didn't say this, or if they did they should be told off.
FTFA:
> prevalence of moderate and severe vision impairment increased slightly (2·5%...)
> the number with moderate and severe vision impairment increased by 91·7%
How do we square these two apparently incongruous numbers?
> As countries progress on the spectrum of socioeconomic development and life expectancies increase, the disease burden is shifting from communicable
> conditions to non-communicable and age-related conditions.
i.e. people are getting older, so age-related visual impairment goes up.
> We estimated 295 million (267–325) people to have moderate and severe vision impairment [in 2020]
> By 2050, we predict ... 474 million (428 to 518) will have moderate and severe vision impairment...
So a few % of world population, in over 50s (not "the world" as the title implies).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2020, @03:36AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Sunday December 13 2020, @08:07PM
I admire the irony.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bradley13 on Friday December 11 2020, @12:01PM
Erf...talk about twisting your data to get a headline. According to the summary, "the number of cases increased" - so OMG, we're all gonna go blind!
But actually, the summary also points out that, on a per capita basis, "age-standardised prevalence of avoidable blindness decreased". The finding is that they should have done even better, because the decrease was only 15%, as opposed to some arbitrary goal of 25%.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 1) by isocelated on Friday December 11 2020, @01:06PM (2 children)
Consequences of staring at screens all day? Or are we just getting better at noticing/diagnosing things like this?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Friday December 11 2020, @01:51PM
Is a consequence of all of those eye raping burn-out-your retina bright blue LEDs that marketing turds put in everything.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2020, @09:41PM
Probably lots of things. Vitamin deficiency due to overly processed foods displacing traditional diets, people surviving head injuries, increased time indoors looking at screens, people living longer in a diminished capacity amongst other things.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2020, @01:57PM (1 child)
Not just blind, dumb too. Get over it liberals, Biden lost.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2020, @04:02PM
"Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!"
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2020, @02:18PM (1 child)
I now realize that having been nearsighted for decades, and recently acquired presbyopia (mistakenly called "farsighted" by many), I am, in actuality, BLIND !!!! Thank God I am not a woman, or I would sadly be even BLINDER!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 11 2020, @03:57PM
Sister Mary Attila warned you but you didn't listen.