Americans careless with their eye health, studies find

November 30, 2009

A study conducted by the American Optometric Association (AOA) suggests that Americans are not conscious enough of their eye health. The AOA found that most American's consider sight to be their most valuable sense, but still practice poor contact lens care and don't attend an annual eye exams, according to the Times-Standard.

Perhaps our lack of attention to eye care stems from overconfidence. A
Harris Interactive survey conducted for Lighthouse International found that the majority of America's baby boomers are not worried about vision loss – a total of 62 percent of those who responded said that they are not concerned about becoming visually impaired or experiencing a loss of vision that can't be corrected by surgery, medicine or eye wear, the news source reports.

However, as baby boomers age, it is likely that the rate of age-related eye diseases will rise. The AOA suggests that Americans over the age of 60 schedule yearly eye exams to check for conditions such as glaucoma, cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, the leading causes of age-related blindness in America.