Prevalence, Years Lived With Disability, and Time Trends for 16 Causes of Blindness and Vision Impairment: Findings Highlight Retinopathy of Prematurity

Rui-Heng Zhang; Yue-Ming Liu; Li Dong; He-Yan Li; Yi-Fan Li; Wen-Da Zhou; Hao-Tian Wu; Ya-Xing Wang; Wen-Bin Wei

doi:10.3389/fped.2022.735335

Prevalence, Years Lived With Disability, and Time Trends for 16 Causes of Blindness and Vision Impairment: Findings Highlight Retinopathy of Prematurity

Front Pediatr. 2022 Mar 11:10:735335. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.735335. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Rui-Heng Zhang¹, Yue-Ming Liu¹, Li Dong¹, He-Yan Li¹, Yi-Fan Li¹, Wen-Da Zhou¹, Hao-Tian Wu¹, Ya-Xing Wang², Wen-Bin Wei¹

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Intraocular Tumor Diagnosis and Treatment, Beijing Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Key Lab, Medical Artificial Intelligence Research and Verification Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beijing Tongren Eye Center, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
² Beijing Institute of Ophthalmology and Beijing Ophthalmology and Visual Science Key Lab, Beijing Tongren Eye Center, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Background: Cause-specific prevalence data of vision loss and blindness is fundamental for making public health policies and is essential for prioritizing scientific advances and industry research.

Methods: Cause-specific vision loss data from the Global Health Data Exchange was used. The burden of vision loss was measured by prevalence and years lived with disability (YLDs).

Findings: In 2019, uncorrected refractory error and cataract were the most common causes for vision loss and blindness globally. Women have higher rates of cataract, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and diabetic retinopathy (DR) than men. In the past 30 years, the prevalence of moderate/severe vision loss and blindness due to neonatal disorders has increased by 13.73 and 33.53%, respectively. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the major cause of neonatal disorders related vision loss. In 2019, ROP caused 101.6 thousand [95% uncertainty intervals (UI) 77.5-128.2] cases of vision impairment, including 49.1 thousand (95% UI 28.1-75.1) moderate vision loss, 27.5 thousand (95% UI 19.3-36.60) severe vision loss and, 25.0 thousand (95% UI 14.6-35.8) blindness. The prevalence of new-onset ROP in Africa and East Asia was significantly higher than other regions. Variation of preterm birth prevalence can explain 49.8% geometry variation of ROP-related vision loss burden among 204 countries and territories. After adjusting for preterm prevalence, government health spending per total health spending (%), rather than total health spending per person, was associated with a reduced burden of ROP-related vision loss in 2019 (-0.19 YLDs for 10% increment). By 2050, prevalence of moderate, severe vision loss and blindness due to ROP is expected to reach 43.6 (95% UI 35.1-52.0), 23.2 (95% UI 19.4-27.1), 31.9 (95% UI 29.7-34.1) per 100,000 population.

Conclusion: The global burden of vision loss and blindness highlights the prevalent of ROP, a major and avoidable cause for childhood vision loss. Advanced screening techniques and treatments have shown to be effective in preventing ROP-related vision loss and are urgently needed in regions with high ROP-related blindness rates, including Africa and East Asia.

Keywords: blindness; prevalence; retinopathy of prematurity; visual impairment; years lived with disability.