Economic Cost of Vision Loss in the U.S.--$51 Billion

Source: CDC's Vision Health Initiative

 More Statistics about U.S. Vision Health from VHI

• Approximately 14 million Americans aged 12 years and older have self-reported visual impairment defined as distance visual acuity of 20/50 or worse. Among them, more than 11 million Americans could have improved their vision to 20/40 or better with refractive correction.
• In 2002, the age—adjusted prevalence of self—reported visual impairment among Americans aged 50 years and older with and without diabetes was 23.5% and 12.4%, respectively.
• Approximately 11% of Americans aged 20 years and older with diabetes had some form of visual impairment (3.8% uncorrectable and 7.2% correctable). Among those without diabetes, 5.9% had some form of Visual Impairment (VI) (1.4% uncorrectable and 4.5% correctable).
• 3.4 million (3%) Americans aged 40 years and older are either blind (having visual acuity [VA] of 20/200 or less or a visual field of less than 20 degrees) or visually impaired (having VA of 20/40 or less).
• 1,600,000 Americans aged 50 years and older have age related macular degeneration
• 5.3 million people (about 2.5% of all people) aged 18 years and older have diabetic retinopathy.
• 20.5 million people have cataract (about 16%) among Americans aged 40 years and older
• 2.2 million people have glaucoma (about 2% ) among Americans aged 40 years and older
• Only half of the estimated 61 million adults in the U. S. classified as being at high risk for serious vision loss, visited an eye doctor in the past 12 months
• Approximately 8.2% of Americans with self-reported vision problems did not have health insurance. Only 4% of Americans without health insurance reported having optional vision insurance, compared with 58% of Americans with private health insurance, 44% of Americans with public health insurance, and 54% of Canadians.
• American without health insurance had the lowest age-adjusted rate of use of eye care services (42%) compared with Americans with private health insurance (67%) or public health insurance (55%) and Canadians (56%).