Specsavers has released its inaugural State of the Nation Eye Health Report, bringing together a wealth data from a variety of sources on the Australian and New Zealand populations and predicting that vision impairment is expected to emerge as the most prevalent health condition among older people over the coming years.

Using the latest available figures (2009) on the cost of eye health in Australia and New Zealand the report said the total financial cost of vision loss was estimated to be $16.6 billion per annum in Australia and $2.8 billion in New Zealand. At the time optometric services accounted for 10% of health system expenditure in Australia and 3.5% of health system expenditure in New Zealand.

Health system expenditure was projected to rise 60% in Australia $4.76 billion in 2020 and 164% in New Zealand from $198 million in 2009 to $522 million in 2020, while the cost of optometric services was projected to increase from $267 million to $467 million in Australia and from $6.8 million to $18.1 million in New Zealand, the report said.

Releasing the 2018 Report, Specsavers Optometry Director for New Zealand and Australia said the paper was one of the most comprehensive stakeholder-backed reports to be published in over 10 years.

“This inaugural report sets the benchmark on eye disease prevalence, detection and diagnosis rates while providing guidance to the eye health professions, related stakeholders and government on the measured facts surrounding eye care, eye disease and eye health in Australia and New Zealand,” he said. “It is packed with case studies and key statistics, looks at both nations’ relationship with eye health while zeroing in on the main causes of avoidable blindness, children’s eye health, indigenous eye health and more”.

A copy of Specsavers’ 2018 State of the Nation Eye Health Report can be downloaded here.