New research from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and US-based non-profit Seva Foundation found that a child with poor vision learns about half as much as a child with good or corrected vision.
This translates directly into lifetime earnings for the individual, according to Seva. The organisation’s estimations from a systematic literature review show if a five-year-old is provided with glasses in primary school and continues to wear them until they are 18, they will earn, on average, 78% more over their lifetime than if they never had their vision corrected.
On a global scale, this accumulates into 6.3 million years of schooling being lost every year and a future economic productivity loss of US$173 billion*, Seva said, adding the losses were found across both high-, low- and middle-income countries.
