Burden of Impaired Vision $269 Billion Annually

CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France, March 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Essilor, the world leader in ophthalmic optics, today launches the first organization dedicated to socio-economic-related vision issues: the Vision Impact Institute. Today's most widespread disability, impaired vision, affects 4.2 billion people across the world, of which 2.5 billion remain uncorrected.

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The economic impact is significant globally: around $269 billion, including $22 billion in the United States, in productivity is reportedly lost every year, even though solutions (eye exams, corrections) are available.¹

"This is an ongoing process, and the Institute will encourage further research to better assess the costs of impaired vision for all regions and populations," says Jean-Felix Biosse Duplan, President of the Vision Impact Institute. "Today, we are calling on scientists and opinion leaders in every country to get involved in the global challenge of fighting visual impairment."

The underestimated economic impact of impaired vision
Impaired vision and its cost are still underestimated in developed and emerging countries: 30% of young people in the world under the age of 18 reportedly suffer from uncorrected refractive error. This proportion rises to 33% in the workforce, 37% among elderly people and 23% among motorists.²

The Vision Impact Institute's mission
The Vision Impact Institute is a global collector and connector of knowledge, data and solutions for reducing the impact of impaired vision. It emerged from the admission that data on impaired vision were scarce and broadly uncoordinated, uncovering the magnitude of the problem of poor vision.

Studies conducted throughout the world were collected and gathered in cooperation with the Boston Consulting Group to put this important knowledge at the disposal of the scientific community and policy makers by creating an online resource center.

Designed as an interactive web platform, the goal of visionimpactinstitute.org is to unite a community of experts and ignite a worldwide movement to increase data research and fight impaired vision in the world.

An independent and expert Advisory Board
To support and guide the Institute's work, independent and well-known international experts have agreed to join the Institute's Advisory Board:

• Kevin Frick, Ph.D., MA, Johns Hopkins, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA
• Clare Gilbert, Ophthalmologist, Professor in International Eye Health, International Center for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
• Arun Bharat Ram, CEO of SRF Limited (Shri Ram Fibers) New Delhi, India
• Wu Jianmin, former ambassador in France and in the Netherlands, former permanent representative of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations in Geneva.

For the full version of this release, please visit the Essilor USA Newsroom.

¹ Source: World Health Organization
² Source: World Bank, Boston Consulting Group

SOURCE Vision Impact Institute