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Childhood blindness
P G Steinkuller1, L Du, C Gilbert
1Department of Ophthalmology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
Insights
Worldwide, 1.5 million children are blind, with significant regional differences in causes and preventability. In the US, cortical visual impairment, retinopathy of prematurity, and optic nerve hypoplasia are leading causes of childhood blindness.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Public Health
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Childhood blindness affects approximately 1.5 million children globally, with significant regional disparities.
- Socioeconomic factors heavily influence the prevalence, preventability, and treatability of pediatric blindness worldwide.
Purpose of the Study:
- To consolidate global data on pediatric blinding diseases.
- To provide current information on the causes of childhood blindness in the United States.
Main Methods:
- Comprehensive literature review on pediatric blindness.
- Direct contact with schools for the blind across the United States to gather data.
Main Results:
- Globally, 5% of blindness occurs in children under 15; 1.5 million children are blind, concentrated in Asia and Africa.
- In developing nations, 30-72% of pediatric blindness is avoidable, with corneal opacification (due to measles, xerophthalmia, traditional eye medicine) being a primary cause.
- In the US, the top causes are cortical visual impairment, retinopathy of prematurity, and optic nerve hypoplasia, with increasing trends in the former two.
Conclusions:
- Marked regional variations in pediatric blindness prevalence and etiology exist, linked to socioeconomic factors affecting prevention and treatment.
- Cortical visual impairment, retinopathy of prematurity, and optic nerve hypoplasia are the leading causes of childhood blindness in the US.
- A standardized World Health Organization reporting format is needed for more uniform and complete data collection on pediatric blindness.
Purpose:
The objective of this study was to summarize available data regarding pediatric blinding diseases worldwide and to present the most up-to-date information on childhood blindness in the United States.
Methods:
We obtained data from a complete search of the world literature and from direct contact with each of the schools for the blind in the United States.
Results:
Five percent of worldwide blindness involves children younger than 15 years of age; in developing countries 50% of the population is in this age group. By World Health Organization criteria, there are 1.5 million children worldwide who are blind: 1.0 million in Asia, 0.3 million in Africa, 0.1 million in Latin America, and 0.1 million in the rest of the world. There are marked differences in the causes of pediatric blindness in different regions, apparently based on socioeconomic factors. In developing countries, 30% to 72% of such blindness is avoidable, 9% to 58% is preventable, and 14% to 31% is treatable. The leading cause is corneal opacification caused by a combination of measles, xerophthalmia, and the use of traditional eye medicine. There is no national registry of the blind in the United States, and most of the schools for the blind do not keep data regarding the cause of blindness in their students. From those schools that do have this information, the top 3 causes are cortical visual impairment, retinopathy of prematurity, and optic nerve hypoplasia. There has been a significant increase in both cortical vision loss and retinopathy of prematurity in the past 10 years.
Conclusions:
There are marked regional differences in the prevalence and causes of pediatric blindness, apparently based on socioeconomic factors that limit prevention and treatment schemes. In the United States the 3 leading causes of pediatric blindness are cortical visual impairment, retinopathy of prematurity, and optic nerve hypoplasia. There is a need for more complete and more uniform data based on the established World Health Organization reporting format.