American adults 65 years old and older have better vision than that age group did nearly a decade ago, according to a recent study published in the journal Ophthalmic Epidemiology. In 2008, 8.3% of those aged 65 and older in the United States reported serious vision impairment. In 2017, that number decreased to 6.6% for the 65-plus cohort. Put another way, if vision impairment rates had remained at 2008 levels, an additional 848,000 older Americans would have suffered serious vision impairment in 2017.

"The implications of a reduction in vision impairment are significant," says the study's first author, University of Toronto pharmacy student ZhiDi Deng. "Vision problems are a major cause of age-related disability, and serious vision impairment can increase the risk of falls and fractures and undermine quality of life. Moreover, the cost of vision impairment to the US economy is in the tens of billions of dollars.”

Black and Hispanic Americans older than 65 showed greater reductions in vision impairment across the decade compared to non-Hispanic White Americans, with a 27% decline in serious vision impairment among Black respondents and a 24% decline among Hispanic Americans. Non-Hispanic White Americans showed the smallest decline in serious vision impairment at 13%.

"The narrowing of racial/ethnic disparities in vision-related problems during this period may be attributable, in part, to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which led to a large increase in the percentage of insured Hispanics and Black Americans," says Deng.

The study was based on 10 consecutive waves of the American Community Survey (2008-2017), which engaged a nationally representative sample of approximately half a million American respondents aged 65 and older annually, including those who lived in institutions such as long-term care homes and those living in the community. The question on vision impairment was: "Is this person blind, or does he/she have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses?”