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Visual Impairment from Glaucoma in the USA - AGS 2003 Meeting
March 2003, San Francisco, USA
Nathan Congdon
This is a US national estimate for visual impairment related to glaucoma based on population data and US consensus 2000.
Definitions
- Blindness: best-corrected vision in the better eye of <= 20/200 (some studies also included field criteria: < 20 degrees)
- Low vision: best-corrected vision in the better eye of < 20/40 (does not include blind persons)
- Visual impairment: includes both blind and those with low vision
Importance of glaucoma as a cause of visual impairment
- Glaucoma is the third-leading cause of blindness among white Americans (after AMD and cataract)
- Glaucoma ranks second as a cause of blindness among blacks (after cataract) and first among Hispanics
- Glaucoma is the third-leading cause of low vision among blacks and Hispanics
The increasing burden of glaucoma disability
- The 175,000 persons now visually impaired from glaucoma is expected to rise by over 50% to 265,000 by the year 2020
- This reflects the rapid aging of all segments of the US population
- This significant increase in disability can only be avoided with
new strategies for the detection, prevention and treatment of glaucoma:
our job as specialists and researchers!
Some caveats about these data
- Blindness from glaucoma is still a rare event; thus, these estimates are based on small numbers, only a few dozen persons from six large studies totalling over 20,000 subjects
- Hispanic data based on only a single study: Proyecto VER
- Not all studies included field blindness
- Still the most robust estimate available of glaucoma visual burden
in the USA
