Eye health by numbers

As America's population ages overall, the number of people with eye conditions and disease will increase. Currently the number of us dealing with vision problems is already staggering. If you're coping with vision problems, you're not alone.

• According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Nearly 1.3 million Americans forty and older are legally blind. About 8% of men and 0.5% of women with Northern European ancestry have the most common form of color blindness. The incidence is lower in almost all other populations.
• Cataracts impact more than 24.4 million Americans age forty and older, almost twice the number of people living in Pennsylvania. About half of all Americans will have cataracts by the time they reach 75.
• Glaucoma affects more than 2.7 million Americans age forty and older.
• Each year about 2.4 million eye injuries happen in the US. Use of protective eyewear can prevent 90% of eye injuries. More than a third of all such injuries happen to those 18 to 45 years old and common household products result in 125,000 eye injuries each year. About 2,000 eye injuries happen at work every day. About 10% to 20% will lead to temporary or permanent vision loss. The most common work-related eye injuries involve a foreign body in the eye (35%), followed by open wounds and contusions (about 25% each) with the rest burns.
• Nearly 2.1 million Americans age fifty and older have late age-related macular degeneration (AMD), when severe vision impairment can occur. About, 9.1 million Americans had early AMD in 2010. By eighty years of age, ten percent of Americans have late stage AMD, which is more common in women than in men.
• Diabetic retinopathy affects nearly 7.7 million Americans forty and older. Currently more than 29 million Americans have the condition and more than a quarter (8.1 million) are unaware they are diabetic.
• There were 48,229 corneal transplants done in the US in 2013. More than 1,000,000 people since 1961 have had their sight restored thanks to corneal transplants.
• Nearly a million eye infections result in visits to a doctor or hospital annually, many of them contact lens-related.
• More than 150 million Americans, or nearly half the population, use corrective eyewear to compensate for vision problems. We spend more than $15 billion annually on eyewear. About 37 million Americans use contact lenses and as of 2010 there were about 800,000 refractive surgical procedures
• There are 19,216 active ophthalmologists in the United States.

Around the world

• Globally, around 223 million people are blind or vision impaired.
• Another, 517 million people globally are vision impaired because of uncorrected refractive error from Presbyopia.
• Around 80 percent of all blindness and vision impairment globally is avoidable or treatable.
• There are approximately 213,459 ophthalmologists worldwide.

Do your best not to become a statistic. Get regular eye exams. If there's something wrong with your vision, let us know, so we can diagnose the problems and address it. If you work in an environment with dust, particles or chemicals that may threaten your vision, use protective eye wear.

Your vision is critical to your quality of life, your ability to work and safely get from one place to another. Don't take it for granted. Work with us to protect your vision. Contact Golden Eye Optometry at (760)-948-3345 or fill out our contact form so we can talk about what you can do to keep your sight healthy for as long as possible and about how we can work together to protect your sight.

Sources:

1. Eye health by numbers
2. Eye Health Statistics - American Academy of Ophthalmology