Abstract
Purpose:
To estimate the number of people visually impaired or blind due to glaucoma.
Methods:
A systematic review for the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) Study 2010 and an ongoing literature search (to 2012) resulted in 243 population-based eye surveys. These data were used to estimate the global burden of moderate and severe vision impairment (MSVI; presenting visual acuity <6/18, ≥3/60) and blindness (presenting visual acuity <3/60). 66 of these studies specified the proportion attributable to glaucoma. We used the DisMod-MR of the GBD to calculate fraction of vision impairment due to glaucoma.
Results:
In 2010, out of overall 32.4 million blind and 191 million vision impaired, 2.1 million (95% Uncertainty Interval (UI):1.9,2.6) people were blind, and 4.2 million (95% UI:3.7,5.8) million were visually impaired due to glaucoma. Glaucoma caused worldwide 6.6% (95% UI:5.9,7.9) of all blindness in 2010 and 2.2% (95% UI:2.0,2.8) of all MSVI. These figures were lower in regions with younger populations (<5% in South Asia) than in high-income regions with relatively old populations (>10%). From 1990 to 2010, the number of blind or visually impaired due to glaucoma increased by 0.8 million (95%UI:0.7, 1.1) or 62% and by 2.3 million (95%UI:2.1,3.5) or 83%, respectively. Age-standardized global prevalence of glaucoma related blindness and MSVI in adults aged 50+ years decreased from 0.2% (95% UI:0.1,0.2) in 1990 to 0.1% (95% UI:0.1,0.2) in 2010, and increased from 0.2% (95%UI:0.2,0.3) to 0.3% (95% UI:0.2,0.4), respectively. The percentage of global blindness and MSVI caused by glaucoma increased between 1990 and 2010 from 4.4% (4.0,5.1) to 6.6%, and from 1.2% (1.1,1.5) to 2.2% (2.0, 2.8), respectively. Age-standardized prevalence of glaucoma related blindness and MSVI did not differ markedly between world regions nor between women (0.1% (95% UI:0.1,0.2) and 0.3% (95% UI:0.2,0.4), respectively) and men (0.1% (95% UI:0.1,0.2) and 0.3% (95% UI:0.3,0.4), respectively).
Conclusions:
In 2010, 2.1 million people were blind and 4.2 million people were visually impaired due to glaucoma, with an increase by 0.8 million and 2.3 million for the number of blind and visually impaired, respectively, from 1990 to 2010. One out of 15 blind people was blind due to glaucoma, and one out of 45 visually impaired people was visually impaired due to glaucoma. These data highlight the increasing global burden of glaucoma.
Keywords: 459 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: biostatistics/epidemiology methodology