As we close out October’s Blindness Awareness Month, a new study from NVISION Eye Centers is shedding light on vision care in the U.S.
The report consists of survey data and an analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and found West Virginia, Mississippi and Arkansas have the highest rates in the country of people reporting blindness or difficulty seeing.
It also found 38 percent of Americans don’t have an eye doctor, and 63 percent don’t have vision insurance.
- One-in-10 Americans haven’t been to the eye doctor in six or more years
- 58 percent have refractive errors (blurred vision, near-sightedness, etc.)
- States with the best patient-to-doctor ratios: Nebraska, Rhode Island and Montana
- The worst patient-to-doctor ratios: Louisiana, Tennessee and South Carolina
The survey also found that 58 percent of those asked did not know the difference between ophthalmologists and optometrists.
Read the whole study here.
