Sight loss costs the UK economy £25.2bn a year and was estimated to rise to £33.5bn a year by 2050, according to a report published by Fight for Sight.
The charity said that reducing the prevalence of eye conditions by 1% a year could avoid costs to the UK economy of up to £3.1bn by 2030 and £9.5bn by 2050, including £1.5bn in savings for NHS and social care services.
Fight for Sight has outlined the potential future cost of sight loss and how much could be saved through investment in research in a costing model for governments, health planners and providers.
The model, which was based on a review of over 350 academic papers, was part of a study entitled Time to Focus that the eye research charity has worked on with the London School of Economics.
It focused on what Fight for Sight called a ‘rising tide of people experiencing sight loss in the UK,’ the personal impact and wider costs to society that have escalated during Covid-19.
Sherine Krause, chief executive of Fight for Sight, said: ‘This landmark report puts sight loss in the UK into focus and shows the huge financial, social and emotional cost it is having on individuals and society.’
Lifetime costs
Fight for Sight said eye conditions were responsible for 10% of all hospital outpatient appointments at the NHS, which it added was under ‘enormous strain’ that had furthered by the pandemic.
The charity calculated that for every 100 people aged 50 to 54 with probable glaucoma who were treated up to a year late, five more people would progress earlier than anticipated to moderate visual impairment, adding up to an additional cost to society of £28,098 a year.
Lifetime costs of the leading causes of blindness, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and glaucoma, were outlined in the report’s costing tool. AMD in an adult aged 50 or over, which caused at least moderate visual impairment, costed £73,350. The lifetime cost of glaucoma was £49,800 per person.
The lifetime, non-healthcare costs of sight loss for someone blind from birth was at least £621,384, which Fight for Sight said was largely due to education, informal care and barriers experienced in the workplace.
Influence of research
There are currently over two million people in the UK living with sight loss and the report found that this would increase to three-and-a-half million by 2050. Fight for Sight added that in spite of this, only 1.5% of public research funding went towards eye research.
An analysis was also carried out on how impactful UK eye research was in order to highlight the scope of influence on fighting sight loss globally. On average, the published outputs of the UK’s eye research received over 10% more citations than the world average. Fight for Sight added that the percentage of UK publications that were cited was substantially higher than the global average.
Krause said: ‘Our comprehensive research analysis proves that the UK punches above our weight in the field of eye research and that at Fight for Sight we fund some of the most impactful research in the world. We are calling on the government to double funding in the next decade to keep us at the forefront of eye research globally and help us reach our targets of new treatments for the leading causes of blindness in the next 10 years.’
A holistic approach
A focus on the prevention of sight loss by taking a holistic approach was recommended in Fight for Sight’s report, which also called for urgent investment in eye research in order to transform the lives of those who live with sight loss.
Krause added that the true cost of sight loss was a personal one that can’t be measured in pounds and pence. ‘Science offers so many possibilities to transform lives and there are breakthroughs happening every day. Eye research is more important than ever in the age of the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit and our report shows how investing in research upfront will actually make huge savings for the NHS and for the wider economy in the longer term,’ she explained.
In addition to the publication of the report, Fight for Sight has encouraged governments, health commissioners and providers to use it to plan for the future and ensure sight loss research and services are properly funded.
‘At Fight for Sight, we won’t stop until we’ve found new treatments and cures for the leading causes of blindness, but we can’t end sight loss alone. We must urgently come together – government, health services, industry, charities and researchers – to ensure sight loss research gets the attention and investment it needs,’ Krause concluded.