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Glaucoma prevalence in United States set to increase dramatically, surgeon warns
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SAN FRANCISCO — The prevalence of open-angle glaucoma will increase dramatically over the next decade, posing a significant burden to the U.S. healthcare system, according to a surgeon speaking here during the American Glaucoma Society’s annual meeting.
David S. Friedman, MD, and colleagues estimated the prevalence of open-angle glaucoma (OAG) in the United States by gender, race and ethnicity through a meta-analysis of several major population-based studies.
Dr. Friedman said based on U.S. census data, the population of Americans over age 65 will be doubling by the year 2015, and the population over age 85 will rise almost fivefold.
Dr. Friedman said estimates indicate 2.2 million Americans currently have OAG and, based solely on demographic changes, this will increase to 3.4 million by 2015.
“Don’t give up your glaucoma practices. You are going to be busy,” he said. “The healthcare burden is going to increase dramatically. We really need to do more to try to prevent this disease.”
Before this analysis, Dr. Friedman said no accurate estimates on the future prevalence of glaucoma existed.
The Eye Disease Prevalence Research Group used data from previous major studies to make their current estimates. Dr. Friedman said estimates of the prevalence of glaucoma in white patients are the most stable because more data were available. Adequate estimates of the prevalence of glaucoma in black and Hispanic patients were available in only one study each, and no data were available for other minority populations.