Global Economic Impact of Eye Health

In the absence of accessible, good quality eye health services and inclusive environments, vision loss can impact individuals, households and communities in many ways, including through increased poverty, reduced quality of life and reduced employment.

We carried out a study to estimate the annual potential productivity losses associated with reduced employment due to blindness and moderate and severe vision impairment (MSVI) at the regional and global level.

We constructed a model using economic, demographic (from 2018) and prevalence (2020) data. Calculations were limited to the working age population (15–64 years) and presented in 2018 US Dollars purchasing power parity (ppp).

We found that 160.7 million people with MSVI or blindness were within working age and estimated that the overall relative reduction in employment by people with vision loss was 30.2%. Globally, using GDP we estimated that the annual cost of potential productivity losses of MSVI and blindness was $410.7 billion ppp (range $322.1 – $518.7 billion), or 0.3% of GDP.

These findings highlight the major impact that sight loss has on global productivity, and provides a mandate for improving vision and developing strategies to help visually impaired people to find and keep employment.

This work formed part of the 2021 Lancet Global Health Global Eye Health Commission.

Publications

Marques AP, Ramke J, Cairns J et al. Global economic productivity losses from vision impairment and blindness. eClinicalMedicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100852