Study highlights global growth of presbyopia

More than one billion people in 2005 had presbyopia, with an estimated 410 million unable to perform tasks requiring near vision, according to a report published in the December issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

The study, by Professor Brien Holden and colleagues of the University of New South Wales, Australia, analysed multiple surveys to estimate the worldwide prevalence of presbyopia, along with the rate at which the condition is corrected and the visual impairment caused when it is not. The data were then used in conjunction with the International Data Base of the UK Census Bureau to extrapolate estimates for the future.