Eye ills plague nearly half of seniors

Sept. 8 - A nine-year study of the elderly showed nearly half develop at least one of three chronic eye diseases as they age, researchers said Monday.

THE PREVALENCE OF eye diseases was higher than in previous studies, and will rise as the U.S. population age 65 and older increases from 34 million in 2000 to 70 million in 2030, said Frank Sloan of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

“As more elderly individuals live longer, we may see a rise in the prevalence of chronic eye diseases that will significantly challenge our ability to provide care,” Sloan wrote in the Archives of Ophthalmology, a journal published by the American Medical Association.

In the 1991-1999 study of more than 10,000 Medicare beneficiaries 65 or older, the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy, a deterioration of the retina caused by diabetes, rose to 17 percent of participants from 7 percent; glaucoma increased to 14 percent from 5 percent; and the incidence of age-related macular degeneration, which erases vision from the center outwards, rose to 27 percent from 5 percent.

“The clinical diagnosis of major chronic eye diseases associated with aging increased dramatically in (this) sample,” the report said. “At the end of nine years, nearly half of the surviving Medicare beneficiaries had at least 1 of (the three diseases studied).”

In addition, 15 percent of the people studied did not get an eye exam, increasing the chances of undiagnosed diseases.

“The continued aging of the baby boomer population will result in an even greater burden of eye disease in the United States than previous cross-sectional estimates indicated. This increased burden has important implications for the nation’s public health, for resource allocation, and for the financing of vision care in the future,” it said.

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