Visual Impairment Declining in Germany

"The numbers of people in Germany who are blind or visually impaired is going down. Robert P. Finger and his co-authors present their findings in the current edition of Deutsches Arzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2012; 109[27/28]: 484-9)," says Medical News Today. "The aging of the population would lead one to expect an increase in the numbers of blind and visually impaired - for in most cases the main reason for loss of vision is an age-related disease. Rates of macular degeneration, for example, and diabetes-related eye disease both go up with age. At the same time, however, the numbers of cases in which glaucoma or optic nerve atrophy results in blindness are going down. Retinal detachment, too, is occurring less frequently." Read more.