Trends in Geographic Distribution of Visual Disability – United States, 2010-2019

ABSTRACT

Purpose

We aimed to describe changes in the geographic distribution of self-reported visual impairment (VI) over the last decade (2010–2019) in the U.S.

Methods

Our study was an analysis of publicly available data collected between 2010 and 2019 from the Census Bureau American Community Survey.

Results

The mean overall prevalence of self-reported VI from 2010 to 2019 was 2.31% in the United States, and there was a significant increase in VI over the past decade from 2.25% in 2010–2014 to 2.37% in 2015–2019 (p < .001). VI was significantly higher in rural counties (3.58%), compared to urban (3.10%) or metropolitan counties (2.18%) (p < .001). In terms of geographic region, the South of the United States had the highest rate of VI (2.63%) (p < .001). For age groups > 17-years-old in the 2010–2019 data, women had higher rates of VI compared to men.

Conclusions

Prevalence of self-reported visual impairment has risen and disproportionately affects certain communities. This includes individuals living in the South, in rural counties, and women.

KEYWORDS:

• Health disparities
• ophthalmic epidemiology
• visual impairment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics statement

This study involves human participants but the Wills Eye Institutional Review Board exempted this study because it uses publicly available, de-identified data from censusbureau.gov

Financial Support

Arch McNamara Fund for Retina Research and Education, Wills Eye Hospital

Previous submissions/presentations

This submission has not been published anywhere previously, and it is not simultaneously being considered for any other publication. It has been previously presented at the Wills Eye Conference, Philadelphia, PA on March 10, 2022 and as a poster at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting in Denver, CO on May 4, 2022.

Relevant Disclosures

None of the authors have any proprietary interests or conflicts of interest related to this submission

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the J. Arch McNamara Fund for Retina Research and Education, Wills Eye Hospital.