Purpose: To examine projections of age-related eye diseases in the United States for health care planning.
Methods: Review of published scientific articles, census data, and unpublished research findings.
Results: The numbers of cases of all age-related eye diseases are expected to rise in the coming years. These projections are primarily based upon population projections, but give little consideration to changes in health behaviors, racial/ethnic differences, environmental exposures, and changes in health care practices that may influence estimates of costs of actual health care burden.
Conclusions: Ongoing monitoring of trends in eye disease distribution is needed rather than projections based on old data that may be inadequate for generating reliable prediction models. There is a perpetual need to train new researchers with expertise in epidemiology, as the exigency for current prevalence estimates is crucial to maximize optimal visual health in the population.
Keywords: age-related eye diseases; prevalence; review.