THURSDAY, Feb. 16, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- The number of people worldwide with the eye disease glaucoma will reach 60 million by 2010 and almost 80 million by 2020, with people in Asia, Africa, and India the worst affected, a new study warns.
Glaucoma, characterized by damage to the nerve at the back of the eye, is the second leading cause of blindness in the world. The disease is responsible for about 12 percent of global blindness.
For this study, researchers reviewed data from population-based studies and used these figures to calculate rates of glaucoma by age, sex and ethnicity. The researchers also included United Nations projections for changes in global population.
Three out of four of the projected glaucoma cases will be open angle glaucoma, which progresses more slowly than angle closure glaucoma, the researchers report in the current issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
People living in Asia will account for nearly 50 percent of the projected glaucoma cases and most of those will be open angle glaucoma, the study found. Women are expected to comprise 60 percent of cases.
By 2010, about 8.5 million people worldwide will be blind in both eyes as a result of glaucoma and that number will increase to more than 11 million people by 2020, the researchers said.
Between 2010 and 2020, glaucoma is likely to increase more rapidly in India, the study authors predicted.
More information
The U.S. National Eye Institute has more about glaucoma.
