Visual Impairment and Blindness in Europe and Their Prevention

Overview

Journal Br J Ophthalmol

Specialty Ophthalmology

Date 2002 Jun 27

PMID 12084735

Citations 68

Authors

I Kocur

S Resnikoff

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The European region currently differs in many aspects, such as political, socioeconomic, and geographical. After substantial political changes at the beginning of the 1990s, the majority of central and eastern European countries started to rebuild their healthcare systems. It is apparent that eastern Europe represents a highly diverse region where the difference among countries broadens year after year. In highly industrialised countries of Europe, the leading causes of childhood serious visual loss are lesions of the central nervous system, congenital anomalies and retinal disorders. In the middle income countries of Europe, congenital cataract, glaucoma and, mainly, retinopathy of prematurity are highly expressed. The major cause of serious visual loss in adults in industrialised countries is age related macular degeneration. The other conditions comprise cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and uncorrected/uncorrectable refractive errors, along with low vision. In people of working age, diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy pigmentosa, and optic atrophy are the most frequently reported causes of serious visual loss. In the middle income countries of Europe, advanced cataract, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy are more frequently observed.

Citing Articles

Risk of complications in patients with one eye during and after ocular surgery.

Ceran T, Citirik M, Teke M Rom J Ophthalmol. 2025; 68(4):409-414.

PMID: 39936047 PMC: 11809832. DOI: 10.22336/rjo.2024.74.

Enhancing Medical Image Classification with an Advanced Feature Selection Algorithm: A Novel Approach to Improving the Cuckoo Search Algorithm by Incorporating Caputo Fractional Order.

Habeb A, Taresh M, Li J, Gao Z, Zhu N Diagnostics (Basel). 2024; 14(11).

PMID: 38893717 PMC: 11172208. DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics14111191.

Anterior chamber and angle characteristics in Chinese children (6-11 years old) with different refractive status using swept-source optical coherence tomography.

Zhao L, Lu X, Tang G, Zhang X, Li R, Xu J BMC Ophthalmol. 2024; 24(1):259.

PMID: 38880899 PMC: 11181599. DOI: 10.1186/s12886-024-03520-8.

Vision transformer with masked autoencoders for referable diabetic retinopathy classification based on large-size retina image.

Yang Y, Cai Z, Qiu S, Xu P PLoS One. 2024; 19(3):e0299265.

PMID: 38446810 PMC: 10917269. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299265.

Neovascular age-related macular degeneration: disease pathogenesis and current state of molecular biomarkers predicting treatment response-a scoping review.

Dervenis N, Dervenis P, Agorogiannis E BMJ Open Ophthalmol. 2024; 9(1).

PMID: 38341189 PMC: 10862285. DOI: 10.1136/bmjophth-2023-001516.

References

Gilbert C, Foster A . Childhood blindness in the context of VISION 2020--the right to sight. Bull World Health Organ. 2001; 79(3):227-32. PMC: 2566382. View

Wormald R, Rauf A . Glaucoma screening. J Med Screen. 1995; 2(2):109-14. DOI: 10.1177/096914139500200212. View

Goldstein H . The reported demography and causes of blindness throughout the world. Adv Ophthalmol. 1980; 40:1-99. View

Thompson J, Woodruff G, Hiscox F, Strong N, Minshull C . The incidence and prevalence of amblyopia detected in childhood. Public Health. 1991; 105(6):455-62. DOI: 10.1016/s0033-3506(05)80616-x. View

Robinson R, Deutsch J, Jones H, Hamlin D, Dhurjon L, Fielder A . Unrecognised and unregistered visual impairment. Br J Ophthalmol. 1994; 78(10):736-40. PMC: 504924. DOI: 10.1136/bjo.78.10.736. View

Sjolie A, Stephenson J, Aldington S, Kohner E, Janka H, Stevens L . Retinopathy and vision loss in insulin-dependent diabetes in Europe. The EURODIAB IDDM Complications Study. Ophthalmology. 1997; 104(2):252-60. DOI: 10.1016/s0161-6420(97)30327-3. View

Kocur I, Kuchynka P, Rodny S, Barakova D, Schwartz E . Causes of severe visual impairment and blindness in children attending schools for the visually handicapped in the Czech Republic. Br J Ophthalmol. 2001; 85(10):1149-52. PMC: 1723742. DOI: 10.1136/bjo.85.10.1149. View

Johns A . The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and non-governmental organisations: an effective network. Int Ophthalmol. 1990; 14(3):227-30. DOI: 10.1007/BF00158323. View

Gilbert C, Rahi J, Eckstein M, Foster A . Hereditary disease as a cause of childhood blindness: regional variation. Results of blind school studies undertaken in countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa. Ophthalmic Genet. 1995; 16(1):1-10. DOI: 10.3109/13816819509057847. View

10.

Rosenberg T . Congenital and hereditary visual impairment in Greenland. Arctic Med Res. 1994; 53(2):91-6. View

11.

VINDING T . Visual impairment of age-related macular degeneration. An epidemiological study of 1000 aged individuals. Acta Ophthalmol (Copenh). 1990; 68(2):162-7. DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-3768.1990.tb01898.x. View

12.

Rosenberg T, Flage T, Hansen E, Riise R, Rudanko S, Viggosson G . Incidence of registered visual impairment in the Nordic child population. Br J Ophthalmol. 1996; 80(1):49-53. PMC: 505383. DOI: 10.1136/bjo.80.1.49. View

13.

Bramer G . International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems. Tenth revision. World Health Stat Q. 1988; 41(1):32-6. View

14.

Trautner C, Icks A, Haastert B, Plum F, Berger M . Incidence of blindness in relation to diabetes. A population-based study. Diabetes Care. 1997; 20(7):1147-53. DOI: 10.2337/diacare.20.7.1147. View

15.

Daher M . Overview of the World Health Report 2000 Health systems: improving performance. J Med Liban. 2002; 49(1):22-4. View

16.

Thompson J, Du L, Rosenthal A . Recent trends in the registration of blindness and partial sight in Leicestershire. Br J Ophthalmol. 1989; 73(2):95-9. PMC: 1041662. DOI: 10.1136/bjo.73.2.95. View

17.

Klein R, Klein B, Moss S, Cruickshanks K . The Wisconsin Epidemiologic Study of diabetic retinopathy. XIV. Ten-year incidence and progression of diabetic retinopathy. Arch Ophthalmol. 1994; 112(9):1217-28. DOI: 10.1001/archopht.1994.01090210105023. View

18.

Bressler N, Bressler S . Preventative ophthalmology. Age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmology. 1995; 102(8):1206-11. DOI: 10.1016/s0161-6420(95)30889-5. View

19.

Czeizel A, Torzs E, Diaz L, KOVACS J, Szabo G, VITEZ M . An aetiological study on 6 to 14 years-old children with severe visual handicap in Hungary. Acta Paediatr Hung. 1991; 31(3):365-77. View

20.

Minassian D, Reidy A, Desai P, Farrow S, Vafidis G, Minassian A . The deficit in cataract surgery in England and Wales and the escalating problem of visual impairment: epidemiological modelling of the population dynamics of cataract. Br J Ophthalmol. 1999; 84(1):4-8. PMC: 1723221. DOI: 10.1136/bjo.84.1.4. View