Blindness

Abstract

A pproximately 284 million people worldwide are blind or have low vision. The majority, 90%, live in developing countries where uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts are the most common causes. In the UK, nearly 2 million people live with sight loss, the majority as a consequence of age-related macular degeneration. Visual impairment is more common among the elderly, and so with the ageing of our population, the number of people with sight loss in the UK is set to increase dramatically in the future. Blindness and low vision have a significant impact on individuals' independence, activities of daily living and finance. The GP must be familiar with blindness and partial sightedness, its registration process and be able to facilitate access to support for patients. Definition of blindness The Department of Health divides visual impairment into two groups: O Sight impaired (SI-formerly partially sighted) and O Severely sight impaired (SSI-formerly blind)