Vision Problems Among Those Over 40 Costly

(Page 2)

"It's time to pay attention to visual disorders, particularly as the U.S. population ages," Rein said. "As the population gets older, more and more people are going to be affected by these conditions."

Rein thinks that it is important for people to have their vision checked regularly, because many of these conditions are treatable. "We can treat cataracts, we can slow the progression of AMD, and glaucoma is very treatable," he said.

A large proportion of costs associated with vision problems are nursing home care. More people with vision problems die in nursing homes than people of the same age who don't have these problems, Rein said.

"In terms of prevention of disease, there is direct cost benefit to be gained by preventing visual impairment and blindness, because that leads to preventing people from being placed in nursing homes," Rein said. "There are also big quality-of-life gains that can be achieved."

One expert thinks new treatments for many of these vision problems are in the pipeline, but they, too, will cost a lot of money. "That's going to make that $35 billion number get even bigger," said Dr. Marco Zarbin, chairman of the Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at New Jersey Medical School.

But the treatments are going to be more effective, Zarbin said.

"The result is that there will be less visual disability, so that's going to have a tendency to make that number get smaller," he said. "I see technology and innovation as costing money, but I also see it as saving money, because more people will continue to be productive and stay out of nursing homes -- live independently -- and have an improvement in their quality of life."

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine can tell you more about vision problems.