Abstract
Vision impairment and blindness are strongly associated with aging and late-life disability. While home to about 17% of the world’s population, an estimated 25% of visually impaired people globally live in India. This proportion is expected to increase as India’s population rapidly ages and continues to grow. There is a need for up-to-date epidemiologic data on the prevalence of vision impairment and blindness in India and on the socioeconomic determinants of poor vision, especially among older adults, to promote visual and overall health and well-being in later life. This paper uses newly available data from Wave 1 (2017–2019) of the population-based Longitudinal Ageing Study in India to estimate the overall and sex-specific prevalence of presenting visual acuity impairment and blindness among individuals aged 45 and older at the national level and for all constituent states and union territories. Overall, 33.8% (95% confidence interval: 33.31%, 34.26%) of the Indian population aged 45 and older had distance visual acuity impairment or was blind (visual acuity in the better-seeing eye < 20/40). The age-standardized prevalence varied considerably among states (22.3–54.6%), and women were more likely than men to be visually impaired or blind in all states. Near visual acuity impairment was also highly prevalent (76.3%, 95% confidence interval: 75.88%, 76.77%). Vision impairment and blindness were more common among marginalized groups and were associated with lower socioeconomic status. Findings from this study are relevant for surveillance of vision health, design of targeted eye care policies and programs and efforts to promote human and economic development.
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Data availability
The LASI dataset analyzed in this study is available through the Gateway to Global Aging Data repository (https://g2aging.org/?section=lasi-downloads). To access the dataset, the user needs to create an account on Gateway to Global Aging Data and complete the Data Access Use Agreement (online form). The LASI team reviews the request and verifies the identity and institutional affiliation. Once this authentication process has been completed, the team will authorize access to the desired dataset. This process usually takes 1 week.
Code availability
Statistical code is available upon request.
Change history
24 November 2023
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-023-00541-8
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Acknowledgements
A.A., C.Y., J.L. and D.E.B. were supported by the US National Institute on Aging (5R01AG042778). J.R.E. is supported by a grant from the US National Eye Institute (K23EY027848) and an unrestricted grant to the University of Michigan Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences from Research to Prevent Blindness. The authors thank Indzara (https://indzara.com/) for providing the image template for Fig. 1.
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J.R.E. performed conceptualization and design of the study, planning of analyses, interpretation of results and drafting of the manuscript. A.A. performed conceptualization and design of the study, planning of analyses, data analysis, interpretation of results and drafting of the manuscript. C.Y. performed data analysis, interpretation of results and drafting of the manuscript. J.L. performed conceptualization and design of the study, planning of analyses, oversight of study team and critical revision of the manuscript. D.E.B. performed conceptualization and design of the study, planning of analyses, oversight of study team and critical revision of the manuscript.
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Ehrlich, J.R., Agarwal, A., Young, C. et al. The prevalence of vision impairment and blindness among older adults in India: findings from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India. Nat Aging 2, 1000–1007 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00298-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00298-6
