Eye care professionals among most at risk of disease

Data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that optometrists and dispensing opticians are among the professions most at risk of exposure to disease in the UK.

ONS explained that there was a clear correlation between exposure to disease and physical proximity to others across all occupations, with data from 2019 based on US analysis.

Using the old nomenclature of 'ophthalmic optician', the ONS said there were 17,800 optometrists in the UK. Of this figure, 54% were female, 27% were black, Asian and minority ethnic, and 21% were aged 55 and over.

Optometrists ranked 17^th out of 359 jobs for exposure to disease and ranked 9^th for closeness to other people, plotted midway between arm’s length and touching on a weekly basis.