Abstract
Purpose :
To quantify the county-level longitudinal change in vision impairment (VI) prevalence and demographic disparities using the American Community Survey (ACS) data.
Methods :
Data from the 2015 and 2017 ACS were used to determine county-level prevalence estimates for VI in each of the 3,142 counties in the United States. The data in each county were compared across the two years to assess changes in the VI prevalence using a paired t-test. Longitudinal differences in the demographic attributes, including age and sex, were assessed also assessed using paired t-tests.
Results :
The overall prevalence of VI in the adult population in the United States increased from 2.26% in 2015 to 2.34% in 2017. County-level vision impairment prevalence increased from 2015 to 2017 (p<0.001), with individual county-level estimates ranging from 0 to 15.19% in 2015 and 0 to 16.88% in 2017. 60.3% of the counties demonstrated an increase in vision impairment across the two years. VI prevalence was higher in females than males (p<0.001) with both groups demonstrating an increase in VI prevalence from 2015 to 2017 (p<0.001 for each). Vision impairment was highest in the 75 year old + age group, followed by 65-74, 35-64, 18-34, and 15-17. Significant age-related differences between 2015 and 2017 were noted in the less than 5, 18-34, 65-74 year old age group.
Conclusions :
National surveillance data provide useful insight into in the county-level geographic distribution of vision impairment, with additional demographic information. ACS data demonstrate increases in VI prevalence from 2015 to 2017 and help indicate geographically more granular areas of need for addressing VI at the population level. These data also represent a foundation for future analyses of VI determinants and data modeling.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.