Monitoring Healthy People 2010 vision objectives

Vision is an essential part of everyday life. Vision affects development, learning, communicating, working, health, and quality of life. An estimated 1.1 million Americans are legally blind, and 19 million are visually impaired. Reflecting the importance of vision health, vision objectives were included in the national health goals for the first time as a new focus area in Healthy People 2010.

Healthy People 2010 vision objectives represent the first comprehensive look at vision health promotion and vision loss prevention at the national level. There are 8 vision objectives for adults and 2 for children. When these objectives were published in November 2000, all but one lacked national baseline data.

In 2002 Vision Health supplement was included in the National Health Interview Survey. CDC in collaboration with the National Eye Institute, NIH used data from the National Health Interview Survey, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and National Electronic Injury Surveillance System to derive national estimates of visual impairment due to refractive errors, prevalence of occupational eye injuries and age-related eye diseases (cataract, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy), use of eye care services, and protective eyewear. The distribution of these eye conditions and eye care services use in various population sub-groups are described.

As a result of these efforts national data to monitor progress towards all Healthy People 2010 vision health objectives are currently available. Healthy People 2010 vision objectives provide a framework for future public health initiatives relating to visual health promotion.