OBJECTIVE: To estimate the societal economic burden and the governmental budgetary impact of the following visual disorders among US adults aged 40 years and older: visual impairment, blindness, refractive error, age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, and primary open-angle glaucoma. DESIGN: We estimated 3 components of economic burden: direct medical costs, other direct costs, and productivity losses. We used private insurance and Medicare claims data to estimate direct medical costs; epidemiologic evidence from multiple published sources to estimate other direct costs, such as nursing home costs; and data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to estimate productivity losses. We used budgetary documents and our direct medical and other direct cost estimates to approximate the governmental budgetary impact. RESULTS: We estimated that the annual total financial burden of major adult visual disorders is $35.4 billion ($16.2 billion in direct medical costs, $11.1 billion in other direct costs, and $8 billion in productivity losses) and that the annual governmental budgetary impact is $13.7 billion. CONCLUSIONS: Major visual disorders among Americans older than 40 years result in substantial economic costs for the US economy. Well-designed public health programs may have the ability to reduce this burden in the future.
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the societal economic burden and the governmental budgetary impact of the following visual disorders among US adults aged 40 years and older: visual impairment, blindness, refractive error, age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, and primary open-angle glaucoma. DESIGN: We estimated 3 components of economic burden: direct medical costs, other direct costs, and productivity losses. We used private insurance and Medicare claims data to estimate direct medical costs; epidemiologic evidence from multiple published sources to estimate other direct costs, such as nursing home costs; and data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to estimate productivity losses. We used budgetary documents and our direct medical and other direct cost estimates to approximate the governmental budgetary impact. RESULTS: We estimated that the annual total financial burden of major adult visual disorders is $35.4 billion ($16.2 billion in direct medical costs, $11.1 billion in other direct costs, and $8 billion in productivity losses) and that the annual governmental budgetary impact is $13.7 billion. CONCLUSIONS: Major visual disorders among Americans older than 40 years result in substantial economic costs for the US economy. Well-designed public health programs may have the ability to reduce this burden in the future.
Authors: Cynthia Owsley; Gerald McGwin; David J Lee; Byron L Lam; David S Friedman; Emily W Gower; Julia A Haller; Lisa A Hark; Jinan Saaddine Journal: JAMA Ophthalmol Date: 2015-02 Impact factor: 7.389
Authors: Karla Zadnik; Loraine T Sinnott; Susan A Cotter; Lisa A Jones-Jordan; Robert N Kleinstein; Ruth E Manny; J Daniel Twelker; Donald O Mutti Journal: JAMA Ophthalmol Date: 2015-06 Impact factor: 7.389
Authors: David B Rein; John S Wittenborn; Xinzhi Zhang; Benjamin A Allaire; Michael S Song; Ronald Klein; Jinan B Saaddine Journal: Health Serv Res Date: 2011-04-14 Impact factor: 3.402
Authors: Shikha Chaganti; Jamie R Robinson; Camilo Bermudez; Thomas Lasko; Louise A Mawn; Bennett A Landman Journal: Deep Learn Med Image Anal Multimodal Learn Clin Decis Support (2017) Date: 2017-09-09
Authors: Chen-Wei Pan; Barbara E K Klein; Mary Frances Cotch; Sandi Shrager; Ronald Klein; Aaron Folsom; Richard Kronmal; Steven J Shea; Gregory L Burke; Seang-Mei Saw; Tien Y Wong Journal: Am J Ophthalmol Date: 2013-02-27 Impact factor: 5.258