Frequency of Self-Reported Eye Diseases and Vision-Related Functional Difficulties among Survey Respondents

Abstract

Background: Eye diseases and functional visual difficulties impose a substantial burden, but diagnostic history and daily-life visual limitations capture different dimensions of eye health. Public National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) vision codebooks provide directly auditable response counts for two US survey cycles.

Objective: To describe the unweighted frequency of reported glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, cataract-operation history and selected vision-related functional difficulties among eligible NHANES respondents in 2005–2006 and 2007–2008.

Methods: We independently transcribed definitive response counts from the CDC VIQ_D and VIQ_E published frequency tables. Disease responses were yes versus no; visual difficulty was defined as any reported difficulty or inability due to eyesight; invalid, inapplicable and “does not do for other reasons” responses were excluded from each item’s denominator. We recalculated unweighted percentages separately for each cycle. No patient-level file, examination data, weights, variance strata or clusters were available in this analysis.

Results: For 2007–2008, reported glaucoma occurred in 263/4,010 (6.6%) eligible respondents aged 40 years or older, and reported macular degeneration in 148/3,992 (3.7%). Previous cataract surgery was reported by 631/5,931 (10.6%) respondents aged 20 years or older. Reading difficulty was reported by 1,375/5,829 (23.6%), and difficulty seeing steps in dim lighting by 1,061/5,777 (18.4%). Comparable 2005–2006 counts were 219/3,032 (7.2%), 141/3,019 (4.7%), 440/4,974 (8.8%), 1,091/4,925 (22.2%) and 880/4,883 (18.0%), respectively.

Conclusions: These verified published survey counts demonstrate substantial self-reported visual functional difficulty, while glaucoma and macular degeneration histories were less frequently reported. Estimates are descriptive sample proportions, not design-weighted US population prevalence, changes over time or clinically adjudicated disease frequencies. A publishable population-inference study would require patient-level data and NHANES complex-survey analysis.