Posted on: Saturday, April 24, 2004

Early detection, treatment can help prevent blindness

By Janet Kornblum
USA Today

America's 77 million baby boomers have begun reaching retirement age, and a substantial number will become blind or experience vision loss, sometimes because they fail to get proper — and early — treatment for eye problems.

That's according to several studies on blindness and aging released this month in the medical journal Archives of Ophthalmology.

Most Americans will retain good vision until they die. But with the 65-and-older population projected to grow from 12 percent to 21 percent of the population by 2020, society will be faced with a growing number of people who are blind.

About 3.3 million Americans 40 and over are blind or have low vision — a non-correctable visual impairment that interferes with the ability to perform everyday activities. That number is projected to reach 5.5 million by 2020, according to the National Eye Institute, part of the federal government's National Institutes of Health.

The aging of the population will bring a range of social and medical problems, but blindness is particularly problematic, study authors say.

"Vision is a very difficult thing to lose, and it's one of the joys of life," says study author John Kempen, assistant professor of ophthalmology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. "To have that taken away, often for a fair number of years, is really a tragedy. Millions of people are affected. It would be wonderful to turn that around."

Some causes of blindness and vision impairment, such as cataracts, which are common in people older than 40, are easily treated with surgery and medications, including vitamins.

"If we live long enough, we're going to get cataracts," says Frederick Ferris, clinical director of the National Eye Institute. The incident rate is projected to increase from 20.5 million to 30.1 million Americans by 2020.

Other eye diseases — the three most common are age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, a disease of the retina — can often be treated if caught early.

But not all eye diseases are preventable. "There needs to be a public policy response to the huge number of cases of these diseases that are going to appear in the next 20 years," Kempen says.

One study in the journal found race-related differences in eye disease. It reports the leading cause of blindness among white Americans is age-related macular degeneration. But among blacks, it is cataract and glaucoma. Among Hispanics, glaucoma is the most common cause of blindness.

"If (people are) African-American or age 60, period, they should have an eye exam to make sure that they're not developing one of these diseases," Ferris says. "They should have an annual eye exam because there are ways to prevent these diseases."