Abstract
According to the World Health Organisation, in 2015 about 253 million people, mainly from low- and middle-income countries, had vision impairment. Aim. We set out to provide an updated overview of the burden of visual impairment in Mexico to guide public health policy towards its prevention and control. Methods. Using data from the Global Burden of Disease study, we describe the age-standardised disability and prevalence rates (per 100,000 population) of total, severity, and cause-specific visual impairment and blindness with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) in Mexico from 1990 to 2019.
Results. During the study period, age-standardised prevalence of blindness and vision loss showed a national decrease of -7.0% from 10115.3 (95% UI 8540.6-11947.8) to 9410.2 (95% UI 7895.6-11230.4.1) cases per 100,000 population but it was not significant. Blindness prevalence showed a significant national decrease of -40.0% from 742.2 (95% UI 653.7-828.8) to 445.6 (95% UI 391.5-495.0) cases per 100,000 population. Decreasing trends in vision disability rates were not significant but changes were observable for blindness (-39.6%). Although a remarkable decline on disability rates due to glaucoma (-33.1%), cataract (-27.5%), and macular degeneration (-20.4%) was observed, neither was it significant.
Conclusions. The trends in prevalence of vision impairment and disability did not change significantly during the study period. Presbyopia and moderate vision loss accounted for most of the disability in all age groups. Inequalities between the poorest and richest states remained unchanged.