Persistence of severe global inequalities in the burden of blindness and vision loss from 1990 to 2019: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Abstract

AimsTo assess the global burden and economic inequalities in the distribution of blindness and vision loss between 1990 and 2019.MethodsA secondary analysis of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019. Data for disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to blindness and vision loss were extracted from the GBD 2019. Data for gross domestic product per capita were extracted from the World Bank database. Slope index of inequality (SII) and concentration index were computed to assess absolute and relative cross-national health inequality, respectively.ResultsCountries with high, high-middle, middle, low-middle and low Socio-demographic Index (SDI) had decline of age-standardised DALY rate of 4.3%, 5.2%, 16.0%, 21.4% and 11.30% from 1990 to 2019, respectively. The poorest 50% of world citizens bore 59.0% and 66.2% of the burden of blindness and vision loss in 1990 and 2019, respectively. The absolute cross-national inequality (SII) fell from −303.5 (95% CI −370.8 to −236.2) in 1990 to −256.0 (95% CI −288.1 to −223.8) in 2019. The relative inequality (concentration index) for global blindness and vision loss remained essentially constant between 1991 (−0.197, 95% CI −0.234 to −0.160) and 2019 (−0.193, 95% CI −0.216 to −0.169).ConclusionThough countries with middle and low-middle SDI were the most successful in decreasing burden of blindness and vision loss, a high level of cross-national health inequality persisted over the past three decades. More attention must be paid to the elimination of avoidable blindness and vision loss in low-income and middle-income countries.

Transnational inequities in cardiovascular diseases from 1990 to 2019: exploration based on the global burden of disease study 2019

“…DALYs are conceptualized as healthy life years lost due to a specific disease, representing the difference between an individual’s current and optimal health status—the latter being a life expectancy free from disease or disability ( 22 ). Descriptive analysis was deployed to assess the global burden and its health implications for overall and specific CVD.…”

Transnational Inequities in Cardiovascular Diseases from 1990 to 2019：exploration based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

“…DALYs are conceptualized as healthy life years lost due to a speci c disease, representing the difference between an individual's current and optimal health status-the latter being a life expectancy free from disease or disability (17). Descriptive analysis was deployed to assess the global burden and its health implications for overall and speci c CVD.…”

Global inequality in burden of breast cancer from 1990 to 2019: a cross-national study

“…A study utilized World Bank data spanning from 2001 to 2017 and found a persistent large disparity between the developed and developing countries (Ma et al, 2021). Other studies explored the regional inequalities from 1990 to 2019 based on Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, including intellectual disability (Nair et al, 2022), autoimmune diseases (Cao et al, 2023), and blindness and vision loss (Li et al, 2023). Regional variations in the burden of breast cancer has been recorded (Fitzmaurice et al, 2019;Oluwasanu and Olopade, 2020).…”