The perfect storm

One downside of increasing life expectancy is an increase in the prevalence of age-related disease. And, as readers well know, many of the most common ocular diseases (cataract, macular degeneration, glaucoma) have a strong correlation with age.

The population in the UK is expected to continue to grow over the next few decades (see table 1). More importantly, as with many western countries, the proportion of the population old enough to present a high risk of eye diseases is set to increase. In 2010, there were estimated to be 4.9 million UK residents over 75 years of age and some 1.4 million aged over 85 years. By 2035, the total aged over 75 years is expected to be 8.9 million, with 3.5 million aged over 85 years. When you consider that around 30% of people aged 65 years or older have a visually impairing cataract in one or both eyes, and almost everyone aged over 85 still phakic shows evidence of cataract, then the pressure on ophthalmology to treat cataracts is increasing alarmingly.