Vision Impairment Costs Billions

I recently read an article by Science Daily that found that uncorrected vision costs billions of dollars in lost productivity annually.  Their research estimated that there are 158 million people in the world that suffer from uncorrected refractive error and that the annual loss in productivity is around $269 Billion.  Yes, that is Billion with a B.

Let’s think about this for a moment because there are a few key words in this research that stick out.  First of all, the billions of dollars sticks out.  Then think about the fact that this is an ANNUAL amount of productivity loss.  It doesn’t take too many years to hit the Trillion dollar mark.  The second key point is that this is due to refractive error, which means we are not talking about uncorrectable eye problems or major eye diseases.  This has to do with vision impairment because people are not wearing glasses.  In some cases, they haven’t had it corrected because they may not feel as if they have trouble seeing or that “it isn’t bad enough for me to go see a vision doctor”.

This research makes a very compelling argument that everyone should have an annual eye examination with the best eye doctor possible.  Seeing better and having great vision is imperative when it comes to being as productive as possible.  Whether you need glasses and lenses or if you prefer to wear premium contact lenses, you should make a point to get an annual eye examination with your optometrist to ensure that you aren’t one of the millions of people with uncorrected vision impairment.