Increased life expectancy and a high diabetes burden has increased the number of Indians with eyesight issues. Cases of near vision loss have more than doubled in the country – from 57.7 million in 1990 to 137.6 million in 2020, according to new data provided by two international bodies.
Near vision loss means inability to focus on nearby objects – it’s also called presbyopia – and sets in from the mid-40s. In a new data analysis which took six to seven years to compile, the Vision Loss Expert Group (VLEG) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) found that there were 507 million cases of near vision loss in the world, with 137.6 million of them in India.
