Vision loss risk areas mapped by report

Areas of the UK at greater risk of avoidable sight loss have been identified in the initial findings of a new report commissioned by National Eye Health Week in conjunction with Vision Express.

The report, titled Mapping the UK’s Eye Health, highlighted Leicester, Gateshead, Liverpool, Merthyr Tydfil, Stoke-on-Trent, Grampian and the London Boroughs of Newham and Waltham Forest as the highest risk areas.

National Eye Health Week organisers said poor lifestyle habits and ineffective health behaviours of people in risk areas were putting residents’ eye health and vision in danger.

Poor uptake in regular eye examinations was singled out in the report, which quoted Eyecare Trust statistics which showed that 20 million people in the UK fail to have their eyes checked every two years. Findings in the report showed that residents in Newham were 30 per cent more likely than the national average to miss out on free eye tests.