Community Eye Health Journal (Jan 2004)
Childhood Cataract: Magnitude, Management, Economics and Impact
Abstract
The prevalence of blindness among children in different regions varies from 0.2/1000 children to over 1.5/1000 children with a global figure estimated at 0.7/1000. This means that there are an estimated 1.4 million blind children worldwide.1 The proportion of blindness in children due to cataract varies considerably between regions from 10%-30% with a global average estimated at 14%, giving 190,000 children blind from cataract. 2 While the magnitude of childhood cataracts varies from place to place, it is a priority within all blindness control programmes for children. Children who are blind have to overcome a lifetime of emotional, social and economic difficulties which affect the child, the family and society.3 Loss of vision in children influences their education, employment and social life. The numbers blind with cataract do not reflect the years of disability and lost quality of life. Childhood blindness is second only to adult cataract as a cause of blind-person years. Approximately 70 million blind-person years are caused by childhood blindness of which about 10 million blind-person years (14%) is due to childhood cataract. Timely recognition and intervention can eliminate blind-years due to childhood cataract, as the condition is treatable.
