Background: Because of the growing life expectancy in developed countries and the exponential increase in vision loss with increasing age, a growing number of elderly persons will eventually suffer from visual impairment and blindness. This paper describes the association between self-reported vision and well-being in individuals aged 50 years and older and their families. Methods: Using binary logistic regressions on data from the 2004 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we analysed the association between self-reported corrected vision in general, corrected distance vision and corrected reading vision on 11 variables capturing emotional well-being, future hopes and perspectives, and concentration on daily activities. Results: For 22,486 individuals from 10 European countries, aged 64.23 ± 10.52 years, lower vision was associated with a highly significant negative impact on all measured aspects of well-being. Conclusions: These data from a large population base in Europe provide evidence that persons with low vision have a higher probability of concentration problems during reading and entertainment; losing interest and enjoyment in their activities; feeling fatigued, irritable, sad, and tearful; having less hope for the future; and wishing for death. Effective measures of early detection, prevention, rehabilitation, education and research, as well as a holistic view of a patient, could help counter these problems, thereby improving mental and physical health and reducing the economic impact of low vision.

Visible strabismus negatively influences the ability to find a partner. Because strabismus surgery in adults restores a normal functioning condition and reduces not only physical but also psychosocial difficulties, it cannot be considered a cosmetic procedure.

Children aged 6 years or older with a visible squint seem to be less likely to be accepted by their peers. Because this negative attitude towards strabismus appears to emerge at approximately the age of 6 years, corrective surgery for strabismus without prospects for binocular vision should be performed before this age.

. Purpose:  The aim of this study was to determine the influence of strabismus on an individual’s ability to find employment based on the opinion of Swiss headhunters. Methods:  Forty Swiss headhunters retrieved from a Swiss online telephone directory were interviewed using a validated questionnaire in order to determine if strabismus would have an impact on a person's ability to find employment. Photographs of a strabismic man and woman as well as of other computer‐generated facial anomalies could be downloaded from the Internet during the interview. Results:  72.5% of headhunters judged that strabismic individuals would have more difficulties in finding a job than orthotropic persons. These difficulties were judged to be stronger in women than in men (P = 0.006), and in exotropic compared to esotropic persons (P = 0.01). Asked about seven facial anomalies, exotropia was found to have the third and esotropia the fourth (women) or fifth (men) most strongly negative impact on finding employment, after having strong acne and a visible missing tooth. Headhunters judged that persons with strabismus are significantly perceived as less attractive and less intelligent by potential employers. Conclusion:  Visible strabismus negatively influences individuals’ ability to find a job and therefore has an impact on their economic status. Successful strabismus surgery realigns the visual axes, producing a normal facial appearance and therefore eliminating the negative impact of strabismus on employability.

Background: We investigated the influence of self-reported corrected eyesight on several variables describing the perception by employees and self-employed persons of their employment. Methods: Our study was based on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). SHARE is a multidisciplinary, cross-national database of microdata on health, socioeconomic status, social and family networks, collected on 31,115 individuals in 11 European countries and in Israel. With the help of ordered logistic regressions and binary logistic regressions, we analyzed the influence of perceived visual impairment – corrected by 19 covariates capturing socioeconomic and health- related factors – on 10 variables describing the respondents’ employment situation. Results: Based on data covering 10,340 working individuals, the results of the logistic and ordered regressions indicate that respondents with lower levels of self-reported general eyesight were significantly less satisfied with their jobs, felt they had less freedom to decide, less opportunity to develop new skills, less support in difficult situations, less recognition for their work, and an inadequate salary. Respondents with a lower eyesight level more frequently reported that they feared their health might limit their ability to work before regular retirement age and more often indicated that they were seeking early retirement. Conclusions: Analysis of this dataset from 12 countries demonstrates the strong impact of self-reported visual impairment on individual employment, and therefore on job satisfaction, productivity, and well-being.