Abstract:

WHO estimates that  globally 90% of patients with visual impairment are living below the poverty line. The rate of blindness decreases with the increase of national income, and when the annual income is lower than 10,000 to 20,000 USD, the rate of blindness markedly rises. After cataract surgery, the poverty rate within patients significantly decreases, with the catastrophic health expenditures of the patient going down. Each year the global productive forces loss due to vision impairment and blindness caused by trachoma is as much as 5.3 billion USD. Vision impairment caused by uncorrected refractive errors can lead to a productive force loss of 268.8 billion Geary-Khamis Dollar. Patients relevant to eye diseases with poverty income ratio (PIR) lower than 1.5 have a significant poorer chance to receive an eye care than those who are with a PIR higher than 5. Patients with high school education or less have  markedly lower chance to receive an eye care or dilated eye examination than those who have college education or higher. Poverty and blindness are closely related. Poverty induces blindness, and blindness could also exacerbate poverty.   (Int Rev Ophthalmol,  2015,  39:     361-367)