Publication details

Prevalence of Vision Loss in High-Income Countries and in Eastern and Central Europe in 2020: Magnitude and Temporal Trends

Authors	BRON Alain JONAS Jost B CICINELLI Maria Vittoria TAPPLY Ian FERNANDES Arthur ARRIGO Alessandro LEVEZIEL Nicolas RESNIKOFF Serge TAYLOR Hugh SEDIGHI Tabassom FLAXMAN Seth BIKBOV Mukharram BRAITHWAITE Tasanee CASSON Robert CHENG Ching-Yu EHRLICH Joshua R FURTADO Joao M HARTNETT M Elizabeth KAHLOUN Rim KEMPEN John KHAIRALLAH Moncef KHANNA Rohit C LANSINGH Charles LEASHER Janet L NAIDOO Kovin S NANGIA Vinay NOWAK Michal PESUDOVS Konrad RAMULU Pradeep TAHHAN Nina TOPOUZIS Fotis TSILIMBARIS Miliadis BOURNE Rupert R A BRON Alain M JONAS Jost B CICINELLI Maria Vittoria TAPPLY Ian FERNANDES Arthur G ARRIGO Alessandro LEVEZIEL Nicolas BRIANT Paul Svitil VOS Theo RESNIKOFF Serge TAYLOR Hugh R SEDIGHI Tabassom FLAXMAN Seth ADDO Isaac Yeboah ADEKIYA Tayo Alex AGODI Antonella AGYEMANG-DUAH Williams AHINKORAH Bright Opoku AHMAD Danish AHMED Ayman ALAHDAB Fares ALFAAR Ahmad Samir ALMIDANI Louay ANDROUDI Sofia ANYASODOR Anayochukwu Edward AZZAM Ahmed Y BARCHITTA Martina BHASKAR Sonu BRAITHWAITE Tasanee BUTT Zahid A CAETANO dos Santos Florentino Luciano CARNEIRO Vera L A CRUZ-MARTINS Natalia DADRAS Omid DAS Subasish DASCALU Ana Maria DERVENIS Nikolaos EMAMVERDI Mehdi FAGBAMIGBE Adeniyi Francis FISCHER Florian GALLUZZO Lucia GUPTA Veer Bala GUPTA Vivek Kumar HUSSAIN Mohammad Salman ILIC Irena M ISLAM Sheikh Mohammed Shariful JACOB Louis JAKOVLJEVIC Mihajlo JEONG Wonjeong JOZWIAK Jacek Jerzy KANDEL Himal KARAYE Ibraheem M KAYODE Gbenga A KHODADOUST Elaheh KIM Jihee KISA Adnan KISA Sezer KOYANAGI Ai KURMI Om P LEASHER Janet L LEE Munjae LEE Seung Won LEE Wei-Chen LIU Xuefeng LOUREIRO Joana A MANAFI Navid MAUGERI Andrea MCALINDEN Colm MILLER Ted R MONI Mohammad Ali MULITA Admir MURRAY Christopher J L NATTO Zuhair S NGUYEN Dang H NGUYEN Hien Quang OANCEA Bogdan ODOGWU Nkechi Martina OLAGUNJU Andrew T ORDAK Michal OSUAGWU Uchechukwu Levi OTSTAVNOV Nikita PAPAGEORGIOU Eleni PARDHAN Shahina PARIKH Romil R PATEL Jay PAWAR Shrikant PESUDOVS Konrad PETCU Ionela-Roxana PODDER Vivek QATTEA Ibrahim QURESHI Maryam Faiz RAWAF Salman SAKSHAUG Joseph W SAMADZADEH Sara SAWHNEY Monika SEYLANI Allen SHOROFI Seyed Afshin SINGH Jasvinder A SOUSA Raul A R C TABATABAEI Seyyed Mohammad TOPOUZIS Fotis UBAH Chukwudi S VERRAS Georgios-Ioannis WANG Yanqing XIAO Hong YANG Lin YONEMOTO Naohiro YOU Yuyi ZASTROZHIN Mikhail Sergeevich ZIELINSKA Magdalena STEINMETZ Jaimie D BOURNE Rupert
Year of publication	2026
Type	Peer-reviewed scientific article
Magazine / Source	OPHTHALMIC EPIDEMIOLOGY
MU Faculty or unit	Faculty of Medicine
Citation
Doi	https://doi.org/10.1080/09286586.2025.2486461
Keywords	Global Burden of Disease Study; Vision Loss Expert Group; vision loss; blindness; vision impairment; refractive error; cataract; Glaucoma; macular degeneration; epidemiology
Description	PurposeTo estimate the prevalence of vision loss for 2020 in high-income countries (HICs) and Central/Eastern Europe and analyse evolving trends since 1990.MethodsBased on a systematic review of medical literature, prevalence of blindness, moderate and severe vision impairment (MSVI), mild vision impairment (VI), moderate VI and presbyopia were estimated for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020.ResultsThe study included 68 population-based studies. In the whole study region, the age-standardized prevalence (all ages) of blindness, MSVI, moderate VI, severe VI, mild VI, and presbyopia-related VI was 0.17% (95% CI:0.15-0.19), 2.27% (2.05-2.49), 2.06% (1.84-2.29), 0.21% (0.18-0.23), 1.79% (1.62-1.99), and 2.61% (1.88-3.48) respectively, with slightly higher rates for women than men. The prevalence rates were higher in Central/Eastern Europe than in the HIC, and lower than the global rates. Stratified between Australasia, high-income Asia Pacific region, high-income North America, Western Europe, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe, the age-standardized prevalence of blindness changed between 2000 and 2020 for men aged 50+ years by -7.95% (-8.11/-7.78), -14.51% (-14.64/-14.38), +13.18% (+13.00/+13.36), -12.07% (-12.23/-11.91), -14.39% (-14.54/-14.23), and -23.59% (-23.72/-23.46), respectively, without significant sex-related differences. Highest increase was in high-income North America (+13.18% (+13.00/+13.36)) and most marked reduction in Eastern Europe (-23.59% (-23.72/-23.46)). Estimated blind individuals were stratified as follows: Australasia, 68,866 (54,913-84,527), high-income Asia Pacific region, 535,124 (439,912-640,330), high-income North America, 711,990 (575,977-867,402), Western Europe, 1,533,752 (1,218,371-1,898,343), Central Europe, 327,352 (264,513-398,083) and Eastern Europe, 789,618 (663,130-923,121).ConclusionsAge-standardized prevalence of blindness and MSVI have further decreased in HIC and Eastern/Central Europe (except for high-income North America with an increase).