Vision Health Initiative, A public health platform for vision health

More than 3.4 million Americans aged 40 years and older are either blind or have uncorrected vision loss. The number of people with vision loss is expected to double over the next three decades due to the aging of the population and increases in chronic diseases affecting vision and eye health such as diabetes. People with vision loss are more likely to experience falls, injuries, multiple chronic conditions and premature mortality. The annual cost of major vision problems among the adult population is more than $51 billion. More than 50% of vision loss could be prevented or remediated. The aims of the vision health initiative (VHI) at CDC is to promote and improve vision health and quality of life by preventing and controlling eye disease, eye injury, and vision loss resulting in disability. VHI activities have been organized around assessment, applied public health research, and public health action principles. VHI achieves its mission by using major national and state surveys to monitor the burden of vision loss and its effect on quality of life and to identify population at the greatest risk of vision loss and related disabilities; by conducting scientific evaluation, health services and economic studies, to assess the costs of vision loss as well as to develop evidence-based, cost-effective interventions to address the problem; and by partnering with others to develop, coordinate, and integrate vision health into local, state, national public health systems, and to inform health care policies and standards of care.