Common vision problems and eye diseases

Currently, there are a large number of both adults and children suffering from various vision problems. Statistics show that there are worldwide more than 7 million people over 6 years old who can not see words and letters clearly even with the help of prescription lenses. And 17% of the U.S. population aged 45 or older has visual impairment even with the availability of corrective lenses. And the number of vision impaired people without corrected lenses reaches 100 million in the United States. Among them, one million are legally blind. All these numbers prove that vision problems are affecting a great portion of the total population, especially in developed countries.

Different levels of eyesight linked with regular eye problems

There are a lot of common problems that may lead to vision impairments, such as hyperopia, presbyopia, myopia, inability of color vision and eye coordination. A healthy infant is usually born to develop 20/20 vision. People with 20/20 vision can see objects with clarity at the distance of 20 feet. However, those groups of people mentioned before are caused by vision problems to have 20/60 vision, 20/400 vision or even worse. Some others have 20/40 vision, which is generally acceptable. Eyesight that is worse than gauge will cause a difficulty in seeing things during regular activities.

Eye diseases cause more severe consequences

In addition to those listed vision conditions, there are even more severe problems associated with the delicate eyes. Eye diseases including age related macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma are among the leading causes of blindness. Most of these diseases are age-related, indicating that the old group is at higher risks. There are exact figures showing some details.

Exact numbers of patients with common eye diseases

When it comes to macular degeneration, 13 million people have signs of this disease and 1,200,000 individuals are at the later stages. The number of blind people caused by macular degeneration reaches 230,000. When it comes to cataracts, this disease has caused 5,500,000 people to have obstructed vision. Each year, there are 1,350,000 people who receive cataract extraction. Diabetic retinopathy is also a prime cause of blinding disorders. There are now 7 million diabetics who suffer from diabetic retinopathy and 700,000 among them are at risk of blindness. Moreover, there are 60 million Americans who are at risk of developing glaucoma and 120,000 individuals who have suffered blindness caused by glaucoma.

A conclusion

These huge figures are absolutely beyond many people’s imagination. But this is the fact that both regular eyesight problems and eye diseases are influencing a big number of individuals across the word, even though there are few statistics from other countries. The elderly is especially vulnerable to unhealthy vision conditions. As stated above, a majority of eye diseases are age-related, because some ocular parts are aging. Of course, middle-age folks and youngsters should also pay sufficient care to their eyes, which mean a lot more for these people.