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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