Global estimates on the number of people blind or visually impaired by glaucoma: A meta-analysis from 2000 to 2020
Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study, Rupert Bourne, Jost B. Jonas, David S. Friedman, Vinay Nangia, Alain M. Bron, Ian Tapply, Arthur G. Fernandes, Maria Vittoria Cicinelli, Alessandro Arrigo, Nicolas Leveziel, Serge Resnikoff, Hugh R. Taylor, Tabassom Sedighi, Mukkharram M. Bikbov, Tasanee Braithwaite, Ching‐Yu Cheng, Nathan Congdon, Monte A. Del Monte, Joshua R. Ehrlich, Tim Fricke, João M. Furtado, Gus Gazzard, Ronnie George, M. Elizabeth Hartnett, Rim Kahloun, John H. Kempen, Moncef Khairallah, Rohit Khanna, Judy E. Kim, Van Charles Lansingh, Janet L Leasher, Kovin S. Naidoo, Michał Nowak, Konrad Pesudovs, Tünde Pető, Pradeep Ramulu, Fotis Topouzis, Mitiadis Tsilimbaris, Ya Xing Wang, Ningli Wang, Seth Flaxman, the GBD 2019 Blindness and Vision Impairment Collaborators, Rupert Bourne, Jost B. Jonas, Robert J. Casson, David S. Friedman, Vinay Nangia, Alain M. Bron, Ian Tapply, Arthur G. Fernandes, Maria Vittoria Cicinelli, Nicolas Leveziel, Paul Svitil Briant, Theo Vos, Serge Resnikoff, Yohannes Abate, Melsew Dagne Abate, Zahra Abbasi Dolatabadi, Mozhan Abdollahi, Richard Gyan Aboagye, Eman Abu-Gharbieh, Salahdein Aburuz, Qorinah Estiningtyas Sakilah Adnani, Shahin Aghamiri, Bright Opoku Ahinkorah, Danish Ahmad, Hamid Ahmadieh, Hooman Ahmadzadeh, Ayman Ahmed, Ahmad Samir Alfaar, Cyrus Alinia, Louay Almidani, Hubert Amu, Sofia Androudi, Abhishek Anil, Jalal Arabloo, Damelash Areda, Tahira Ashraf, Sara Bagherieh, Ovidiu Constantin Baltatu, Mehmet Fırat Baran, Amadou Barrow, Azadeh Bashiri, Nebiyou Simegnew Bayileyegn, Fatemeh Bazvand, Alemshet Yirga Berhie, Jasvinder Singh Bhatti, Mukharram M. Bikbov, Marina Gabriela Birck, Veera Raghavulu Bitra, Marija Božić, Tasanee Braithwaite, Katrin Burkart, Yasser Bustanji, Zahid A Butt, Muthia Cenderadewi, Vijay Kumar Chattu, Kaleb Coberly, Omid Dadras
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To estimate global and regional trends from 2000 to 2020 of the number of persons visually impaired by glaucoma and their proportion of the total number of vision-impaired individuals. METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis of published population studies and grey literature from 2000 to 2020 was carried out to estimate global and regional trends in number of people with vision loss due to glaucoma. Moderate or severe vision loss (MSVI) was defined as visual acuity of 6/60 or better but <6/18 (moderate) and visual acuity of 3/60 or better but <6/60 (severe vision loss). Blindness was defined as presenting visual acuity <3/60. RESULTS: Globally, in 2020, 3.61 million people were blind and nearly 4.14 million were visually impaired by glaucoma. Glaucoma accounted for 8.39% (95% uncertainty intervals [UIs]: 6.54, 10.29) of all blindness and 1.41% (95% UI: 1.10, 1.75) of all MSVI. Regionally, the highest proportion of blindness relating to glaucoma was found in high-income countries (26.12% [95% UI: 20.72, 32.09]), while the region with the highest age-standardized prevalence of glaucoma-related blindness and MSVI was Sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2000 and 2020, global age-standardized prevalence of glaucoma-related blindness among adults ≥50 years decreased by 26.06% among males (95% UI: 25.87, 26.24), and by 21.75% among females (95% UI: 21.54, 21.96), while MSVI due to glaucoma increased by 3.7% among males (95% UI: 3.42, 3.98), and by 7.3% in females (95% UI: 7.01, 7.59). CONCLUSIONS: Within the last two decades, glaucoma has remained a major cause of blindness globally and regionally.