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Building a basis for action : enhancing vision health surveillance in the United States
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2/3/11
[PDF-1.26 MB]
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Alternative Title:Enhancing vision health surveillance in the US;Enhancing vision health surveillance in the United States;
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Description:Visual impairment, defined as correctable and uncorrectable blindness and low-vision, underlies some of the health outcomes most costly to human health, human capital (disability, quality of life), and to the US economy. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 314 million people worldwide are visually impaired, 45 million are blind, and nearly 80% of the world’s blindness can be prevented or treated. Disparities in vision health (eye disease, visual impairment, and related disability) exist among certain age, sex, socio-demographic, racial, and geographic subgroups. Therefore public health strategies to enhance awareness, promote education, and increase access to successful prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation services among populations at greatest risk for poor vision outcomes will be key to protecting vision health in this country and globally. Systematic and ongoing collection of relevant data to track disparities in vision health is paramount to developing and monitoring the impact of public health initiatives, programs, and policies aimed at reducing the burden of visual impairment and eliminating the existing disparities. The goal of this paper is to outline the general characteristics of public health and chronic disease surveillance, review the existing state of knowledge as it relates to disparities in vision health, and to evaluate our current capacity for collecting useable data to track disparities in vision health outcomes.
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