Childhood blindness

Purpose: The objective of this study was to summarize available data regard ing pediatric blinding diseases worldwide and to present the most up-to-dat e information on childhood blindness in the United States. Methods: We obta ined data from a complete search of the world literature and from direct co ntact with ea ch of the schools for the blind in the United States. Results : Five percent of worldwide blindness involves children younger than 15 yea rs of age; in developing countries 50% of the population is in this age gro up. By World Health Organization criteria, there are 1.5 million children w orldwide who are blind: 1.0 million in Asia, 0.3 million in Africa, 0.1 mil lion in Latin America, and 0.1 million in the rest of the world. There are marked differences in the causes of pediatric blindness in different region s,apparently based on socioeconomic factors. In developing countries, 30% t o 72% of su ch blindness is avoidable, 9% to 58% is preventable, and 14% to 31% is treatable. The leading cause is corneal opacification caused by a c ombination of measles, xerophthalmia, and the use of traditional eye medici ne. There is no national registry of the blind in the United States, and mo st of the schools for the blind do not keep data regarding the cause of bli ndness in their students. From those schools that do have this information, the top 3 causes are cortical visual impairment, retinopathy of prematurit y, and optic nerve hypoplasia. There has been a significant increase in bot h cortical vision loss and retinopathy of prematurity in the past 10 years. Conclusions: There are marked regional differences in the prevalence and c auses of pediatric blindness, apparently based on socioeconomic factors tha t limit prevention and treatment schemes. In the United States the 3 leadin g causes of pediatric blindness are cortical visual impairment, retinopathy of prematurity, and optic nerve hypoplasia. There is a need for more compl ete and more uniform data based on the established World Health Organizatio n reporting format.