Abstract
Purpose
The last complete report on causes of blindness in England and Wales was for the data collected during April 1999–March 2000. This study updates these figures, with data collected during April 2007–March 2008.
Methods
In England and Wales, registration for blindness and partial sight is initiated with certification by a consultant ophthalmologist with the consent of the patient. The main cause of visual impairment was ascertained where possible for all certificates completed during April 2007–March 2008 and a proportional comparison with 1999–2000 figures was made.
Results
We received 23 185 Certificates of Vision Impairment (CVIs), of which 9823 were for severe sight impairment (blindness) (SSI) and 12 607 were for sight impairment (partial sight) (SI). These totals were considerably lower than the numbers certified in the year ending 31 March 2000. In 16.6% of CVIs, there were multiple causes of visual impairment as compared with 3% of BD8s in 2000. Degeneration of the macula and posterior pole (mostly age-related macular degeneration (AMD)) contributed to vision impairment in 12 746 newly certified blind or partially sighted.
Conclusions
AMD is still by far the leading cause of certified visual loss in England and Wales. Proportional comparisons are hampered by the increasing use of multiple pathology as a main cause of visual impairment, which is believed to have arisen owing to the change in certificate used for data collection. These figures are not estimates of the total numbers newly blind in the UK because not all those entitled to certification are offered and or accept it, but they do nevertheless document the number of people who are deemed to be sufficiently sight impaired to warrant support and have been both offered and accepted it. This is usually the case when no further ophthalmic intervention is thought likely to be of benefit in terms of restoring or improving vision.
Similar content being viewed by others
Log in or create a free account to read this content
Gain free access to this article, as well as selected content from this journal and more on nature.com
or
References
Sorsby A . The Causes of Blindness in England 1948–50. HMSO: London, 1953.
Sorsby A . Blindness in England 1951–54. HMSO: London, 1956.
Sorsby A . The Incidence and Causes of Blindness in England and Wales 1948–62. Reports of Public Health and Medical Subjects, Vol 114. HMSO: London, 1966.
Sorsby A . The incidence and causes of blindness in England and Wales 1963–8. Reports of Public Health and Medical Subjects, Vol 128. HMSO: London, 1972.
Department of Health and Social Security. Blindness and Partial Sight in England 1969–76. Reports of Public Health and Medical Subjects, Vol 129. HMSO: London, 1979.
Government Statistical Service. Causes of Blindness and Partial Sight Among Adults in 1976–77 and 1980/81. HMSO: London, 1988.
Evans J . Causes of Blindness and Partial Sight in England and Wales 1990–1991. In Studies on Medical and Population Subjects, Vol 57. HMSO: London, 1988.
Bunce C, Wormald R . Leading causes of certification for blindness and partial sight in England & Wales. BMC Public Health 2006; 6: 58.
Bunce C, Wormald R . Causes of blind certifications in England and Wales: April 1999–March 2000. Eye (London) 2008; 22 (7): 905–911.
International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision. WHO: Geneva, 1977.
Registered Blind and Partially Sighted People Year ending 31 March 2008 England. Information Centre, Adult Social Care Statistics. Available at: http://www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/blindpartiallysighted08.
Bruce IW, McKennell AC, Walker EC . Blind and Partially Sighted Adults in Britain: The RNIB Survey, Vol 1. HMSO: London, 1991.
Walker EC, Tobin MHJ, McKennell AC . Blind and Partially Sighted Children in Britain: The RNIB Survey, Vol 2. HMSO: London, 1992.
Robinson R, Deutsch J, Jones HS, Youngson-Reilly S, Hamlin DM, Dhurjon L et al. Unrecognised and unregistered visual impairment. Br J Ophthalmol 1994; 78 (10): 736–740.
Bunce C, Evans J, Fraser S, Wormald R . BD8 certification of visually impaired people. Br J Ophthalmol 1998; 82 (1): 72–76.
King AJ, Reddy A, Thompson JR, Rosenthal AR . The rates of blindness and of partial sight registration in glaucoma patients. Eye 2000; 14 (Part 4): 613–619.
Barry RJ, Murray PI . Unregistered visual impairment: is registration a failing system? Br J Ophthalmol 2005; 89 (8): 995–998.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a grant from the Guide Dogs and R & D central funding. The data captured by the CVI are DH copyright and this work was made possible by collaboration with the Royal College of Ophthalmologists.
The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and not necessarily any funding body or the Department of Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bunce, C., Xing, W. & Wormald, R. Causes of blind and partial sight certifications in England and Wales: April 2007–March 2008. Eye 24, 1692–1699 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.2010.122
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.2010.122
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Sight impairment registration in Trinidad: trend in causes and population coverage in comparison to the National Eye Survey of Trinidad and Tobago
Eye (2024)
-
Prevalence of inherited retinal diseases in a large Egyptian cohort
BMC Ophthalmology (2023)
-
Comparison of colour contrast sensitivity in eyes at high risk of neovascular age‐related macular degeneration with and without subsequent choroidal neovascular membrane development
Eye (2023)
-
Is preventable sight loss truly preventable? An exploration of a public health indicator for sight loss due to age-related macular degeneration in England
Eye (2023)
-
Mental health support across the sight loss pathway: a qualitative exploration of eye care patients, optometrists, and ECLOs
Eye (2023)
