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Newly released World Health Organization (WHO) data indicate that prevalence of visual impairment worldwide has been significantly reduced to 285 million people. Of those visually impaired persons, an estimated 246 million have moderate to severe impairment and 39 million are classified by the WHO as blind.

“This reduction reflects the investment of governments and their international development partners in improving eye health services and strategies. Socioeconomic developments have also contributed in many countries to these welcome trends,” the London-based International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) said in announcing the WHO data.

The top three causes of blindness, according to the WHO estimates, are cataract, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, while uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause for moderate-to-severe visual impairment.

The WHO estimates 63 percent of those with low vision and 82 percent of blind people are over 50 years of age. Of the six WHO world regions, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific account for 73 percent of moderate-to-severe visual impairment and 58 percent of blindness.

The data reflect a decline in infectious diseases, while incidences of chronic diseases, which affect both the developed and the developing world, are increasing steeply, the IAPB notes.

The decrease is particularly surprising given that the number of people over 50 years old – the age group most affected by visual impairment – continues to grow rapidly, increasing by 14 percent in the past five years, the IAPB notes.

The new estimates were released in conjunction with VISION 2020, a global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness, conducted through the WHO, the IAPB, and an international alliance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), professional associations, eye care institutions and corporations.

The AOA officially supports the VISION 2020 initiative.

While encouraged by the new estimates, the IAPB acknowledged that “challenges remain to achieve the VISION 2020 goal of eliminating the main causes of avoidable blindness by the year 2020.”

And while the new data clearly indicate reduced prevalence, no direct comparison can be made with previous data as the methodology now used to estimate the incidence of visual impairment and blindness is different from that used in previous studies, the IAPB cautions. The WHO is the health arm of the United Nations. The newly released estimates are for 2010.

For more information, visit the WHO’s Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment Web page (www.who.int/blindness) or the VISION 2020 Web site (www.vision2020.org).