Promoting decent work and economic growth are key parts of the Sustainable Development Goals for a better and more prosperous future for all. But progress is blocked for many with vision impairment, especially in low- to middle-income countries, home to 9 out of 10 people with vision loss, but where quality eye care is often difficult to access. While vision loss causes $410.7 billion each year in lost productivity globally, existing evidence shows that every $1 invested in eye health yields $4 of economic gain. Removing the challenges presented by vision loss provides greater economic opportunities for everyone.
What’s most sobering is that, of the 1.1 billion people who live with vision loss globally, 90% of those cases are completely avoidable. Through my work in global vision care, I’ve had the opportunity to see first hand the individual and collective impact of vision loss from an economic and social standpoint.
It’s largely represented in three categories; what I might refer to as the three C’s: children, careers, and communities. When we address these, the positive impact is huge and almost immediate — underscoring the need for increased attention to be paid to vision solutions.
Investing in and democratizing access to [eye care] treatments must be a priority.
—Children
Access to education lays the foundation for a lifetime of economic opportunity and is key to escaping poverty. Children with vision impairment have poorer educational outcomes and are less likely to attend school. In fact, children with vision impairment in multiple LMICs are up to five times less likely to be in formal education than children without disabilities.
Uncorrected refractive error is the leading cause of poor vision among children globally and is shown to impair school performance while also leading to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. But the issue can be solved with treatment as simple as a pair of glasses — something with a higher rate of proven impact than other school-based health interventions, such as iron treatment, or even family income or parental education level.
More than ever, concerted action is needed at the national level in countries around the world to screen children’s vision in school and provide free or low-cost glasses to help ensure that every child has access to quality education.
Careers
Much like for children and education, there is a clear link between good vision and productivity in the workplace. Being able to see clearly is critical to efficacy and efficiency, especially when your job is one that requires a laser-focused attention to detail.
We’ve seen this time and again in industries ranging from garment workers and other craftsmen to tea pickers. In fact, a study that my team at Orbis helped to lead in India proved that tea pickers, who are mostly women, increased the amount of tea picked by over 5 kilograms — a nearly 22% relative productivity increase — after receiving a simple pair of reading glasses. This, in turn, impacted their incomes and the economic prosperity not only of their families but their communities at large.
Further evidence of this link between good vision and economic productivity comes from a study of beneficiaries of cataract surgery in three LMICs: Kenya, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, which showed strong evidence of continued enhancement of economic activity at the household level over six years.
These studies also underscore another of the health community’s greatest challenges: the importance of gender parity in health care. Women and girls disproportionately live with blindness or vision loss and often have their issues go unaddressed for far too long. By treating these cases, we not only empower them financially but also instill a sense of independence and confidence that will impact the trajectory of their lives.
Community
While the mobility automobiles provide has played its own role in reducing inequities, the economic benefits of safe roads and, conversely, the financial burden of road traffic crashes, cannot be overstated: crash-related injuries are the leading cause of death globally among children and young people, a precious resource for the world, and fatal and nonfatal crash injuries will cost the world economy an estimated $1.8 trillion dollars from 2015-2030 alone.
A recent study showed that the number of drivers with poor vision on the road in some LMICs is high, and this includes professional drivers. A high proportion of those driving with poor vision in Bangladesh reported that their vision had never been examined before being granted a license despite poor vision increasing the risk of being involved in crashes by nearly 50%.
Reducing the financial — and emotional — burden of unnecessary crashes, injuries, and death due to drivers with poor vision will require concerted action on the part of governments and policymakers to create and enforce stricter standards and also improve vision care available for drivers.
These examples show that the cost of vision loss is truly reckoned not just by individuals, but also the families and communities they’re a part of. When we look at health globally, it is easy to see the larger problems: diseases, the recent COVID-19 pandemic, health security … But paying attention to our whole body, including organs as small as our eyes, can have a meaningful impact on health overall — for individuals, societies, and economies. Investing in and democratizing access to treatments must be a priority.
About the author
Nathan Congdon
Nathan Congdon is the director of research at eyecare nonprofit Orbis International and Ulverscroft chair of global eye health at Queen's University Belfast, where he directs the Translational Research for Equitable Eyecare Centre.
