“A lot of people don’t know what glaucoma is because they don’t know anyone who’s been diagnosed with glaucoma,” says Dr. Shervonne Poleon, “and they don’t know anyone who’s been diagnosed with glaucoma because someone who actually has glaucoma never got diagnosed with glaucoma.” Learn why it’s so important to know the actual prevalence (number of occurrences) of glaucoma in the U.S.*

Why Don’t People With Glaucoma Get Diagnosed?

Glaucoma often goes undiagnosed for various reasons, among them:

• Lack of early symptoms. Open-angle glaucoma, which is the most common type in the U.S., doesn’t have any early symptoms, so there are no obvious warning signs that anything is amiss.
• Slow changes. Vision loss from glaucoma usually happens gradually,  and it’s your peripheral (side) vision that’s affected first, which may not be noticeable.
• Inconsistent risk factors. While high intraocular (internal eye) pressure (IOP) is the most common cause and risk factor of glaucoma, not everyone with high IOP develops glaucoma.

Without evidence that any problems are brewing, many people don’t get their eyes checked every year, so often don’t receive a glaucoma diagnosis until the disease–and the damage–are advanced. With low diagnosis numbers being reported, the true extent and burden of the disease flies under the radar.

How Accurate Numbers About Who’s Affected Can Help

Knowing the actual, or at least more accurate, numbers about who has glaucoma “pushes the knowledge about glaucoma to the fore,” Poleon says. 

Since glaucoma prevalence has been vastly underreported, not enough discussion about the disease has taken place in the spaces where it needs to happen in order to gain attention and support. With greater “public discourse,” she says, “we could actually do something, going forward.”

In getting the word out about glaucoma and the actual number of people who are affected by it, Poleon’s intention is to spread awareness about the condition, as well as about the need for additional research, and funding for early detection. She hopes that greater awareness will “spur” more people to be proactive about their eye health.

“In the long run,” she says, “five to 10 years, you have more people who get tested for glaucoma early enough, you can delay disease progression…and in 50 years,” she continues, that may translate into not only considerably lower disability, but also millions or even billions of dollars in healthcare costs connected with lost vision.

*Prevent Blindness. (2024, October 18). Why is it important to know how many people have glaucoma? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsnLyvoSHiU 

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