More than two million Americans over the age of 40 are visually impaired. Blindness and vision impairment will place an increasingly heavy burden on the nation's population, on the economy and the health care system as baby boomers age in the coming decades.
For more than 30 years, Prevent Blindness America has helped guide policy makers, researchers and other concerned professionals through the publication of Vision Problems in the U.S., a comprehensive resource for facts and figures on age-related vision loss in America.
On March 21, 2002, Prevent Blindness America released the fourth edition of Vision Problems in the U.S. with the most up-to-date statistics available on the scope and burden of age-related eye diseases in our country. Through the generous support of the National Eye Institute, epidemiological researchers at Johns Hopkins University have compiled and analyzed the data that are presented in this new edition of Vision Problems in the U.S.
In conjunction with the release of the Vision Problems in the U.S. report, Prevent Blindness America held a symposium, sponsored by Alcon Laboratories, at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, D.C. to present findings on the scope and burden of age-related eye disease for the people of the United States. At this symposium, leading ophthalmic researchers and public health officials discussed data provided by the Vision Problems in the U.S. study on cataract, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, including information on the social and economic burden of these eye diseases, risk factors, and the future of treatment and prevention.
The symposium was made possible through the generous support of its title sponsor, Alcon Laboratories, as well as by the sponsorship of Eli Lilly and Company, Allergan, Bausch & Lomb and Novartis Ophthalmics, and additional funding provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
