A new study from researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) Roski Eye Institute projects the number of preschool children in the United States with visual impairment will increase by more than 25 percent in the coming decades, with the majority of visual impairment resulting from simple uncorrected refractive error.
The researchers reportedly examined prevalence data from two major population-based studies to determine demographic and geographic variations in visual impairment in children ages 3 to 5 years in the U.S. in 2015, and estimated projected prevalence through 2060.
According to researchers, an estimated 174,000 children aged 3 to 5 were visually impaired, with 69 percent due to uncorrected refractive error. Their 45-year projections reportedly indicate a 26 percent increase in visual impairments in 2060, with multiracial American children having the greatest proportional increase (137 percent) and non-Hispanic white children having the largest proportional decrease (21 percent) in the number of visual impairment cases.
The study was recently published in JAMA Ophthalmology.
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