 PhD, Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management
at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Professor Kevin Frick is an internationally respected health economist. In 2009, the Bulletin of the World Health Organization published a paper by Frick and colleagues from the International Centre for Eyecare Education and the African Vision Research Institute which estimated that vision impairment costs the world US$269 billion annually.
Prof Frick has joint appointments in departments including Ophthalmology and Nursing. He has worked extensively with non-economics collaborators to apply economic logic and economic concepts to other fields. He has been extensively involved in estimating the burden of different forms of visual impairment in different regions in the world and has collaborated in a group that outlined state-of-the-art methods for calculating the costs of blindness in populations. He has produced over 100 peer-reviewed publications and serves on the editorial board for Ophthalmic Epidemiology.
Abstract
The epidemiological measurement of uncorrected refractive error in large scale population studies is a relatively recent addition to the literature. Historically, best corrected visual acuity was measured and reported without measuring, presenting visual acuity and determining whether the difference was due only to uncorrected refractive error.
Recently there have been a large number of studies reporting on the prevalence of uncorrected refractive error. These were summarized in a publication by the WHO in 2004.
Previously our research team used the prevalence rates and the most up to date age-specific population data from the US Census Bureau’s International Database, to project the number of individuals with uncorrected refractive error worldwide.
Data also allowed us to calculate separately the number of individuals with visual impairment and the number who were blind. To the numbers of individuals with visual impairment and blind, we applied relevant disability adjusted life year weights, country-specific GDP per capita, relevant labor force participation rates, relevant employment rates, and additional measures of productivity loss related to the care that needs to be provided for individuals with visual impairment, to estimate the global potential productivity loss associated with uncorrected refractive error.
A somewhat more conservative estimate was
calculated based on the assumption that individuals aged 50 and older would not lose productivity. In 2007 international dollars, the estimated impact of uncorrected refractive error was $269 billion. The conservative estimate was $121 billion.
This presentation will describe the calculation in detail and discuss implications for different regions. It will also provide figures updated with 2010 currency and a simple adjustment for the increase in world population and discuss several ways in which the estimated impact could be further refined for policy purposes. |
