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Refractive Error
Cause data is not available for people with mild vision impairment.
(Opens in a new window) Also, there is limited information on the causes of vision impairment and blindness for people under 50 years of age.More standardisation and certainty of the causes of vision impairment and blindness would be beneficial in future research.
Refractive error: Global summary from the VLEG study
Refractive disorders are important causes of vision loss but can be easily treated by spectacles, contact lenses, or refractive surgery. Myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism are the main causes of distance vision impairment. Near vision impairment is also the biggest cause of vision loss overall, but not included here due to the focus the causes of distance vision loss.
Conversely, the prevalence of myopia has been rapidly increasing, especially in urban areas. School eye health programs and the development of refractive services, including the provision of affordable spectacles are the main strategies to address uncorrected refractive errors. Find out more about child eye health.
The increasing emergence of myopic macular degeneration (Fricke et al., 2018) is another important cause of vision impairment which will require better estimates to enable planning and prevention strategies.
Reference
Adelson, J., Bourne, R., Briant, P., Flaxman, S., Taylor, H., Jonas, J., Abdoli, A., Abrha, W., Abualhasan, A., Abu-Gharbieh, E. and Adal, T. (2020). Causes of blindness and vision impairment in 2020 and trends over 30 years, and prevalence of avoidable blindness in relation to VISION 2020: the Right to Sight: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet Global Health.
Effective Coverage of Eye Care
(Opens in a new window) On World Sight Day 2022, the WHO launched the Report of the 2030 Targets on Effective Coverage of Eye Care, based on two publications in The Lancet Global Health.These publications present the first set of reference estimates of effective refractive error coverage (eREC) as well as effective cataract surgical coverage (eCSC) – the two new ambitious global targets for 2030.
We have prepared a presentation explaining what the reference data in these publications means for 2030 In Sight.
Learn more about refractive error
(Opens in a new window) Refractive errors result in an unfocussed image falling on the retina, causing blurred vision of different types.Find out more at this link.