The History of World Sight Day

World Sight Day is an annual awareness day that takes place on the second Thursday of October each year. It was first introduced by the SightFirstCampaign of Lions Club International Foundation in 2000 and has become more widely observed across the world over the last 21 years.

This year World Sight Day falls on Thursday 13th October 2022 and the International Agency now coordinates it for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) under the VISION 2020 Global Initiative. The initiative’s main objectives are to eliminate avoidable blindness as a public health problem and reduce the negative effects of blindness and vision loss.

2022 Theme: Make Vision Count

Each year the IAPB selects a theme that the awareness day will be formed around and the 2022 theme is ‘Make Vision Count’ which essentially is about making people more aware of the statistics about blindness to help people to understand how many people it affects.

Around 36 million people in the world are blind and four out of five cases could have been prevented with the right intervention and health solutions. This means a staggering 80% of blind people could have avoided becoming blind.

Another important number that the IAPB wants to raise awareness about is that a further 217 million people have moderate to severe vision impairment, so while they are not included in the 36 million blind people, their vision is very limited.

90 percent of visually impaired people live in impoverished nations and 1.4 million children have irreversible lifelong vision loss. These are the alarming figures that the IAPB wants more people to know about, while also developing a better understanding of the causes of preventable blindness, which are:

• Uncorrected refractive errors (nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism)
• Unoperated cataracts
• Glaucoma
• Diabetic retinopathy

Diabetes is a major health problem that affects around 285 million people around the world. About a third of diabetic people have diabetic retinopathy, so that is nearly 100 million people with diabetic retinopathy.

Guidance for preventing avoidable blindness:

• Have regular eye tests
• Identify any family history related to eye problems
• Reduce the risk of diabetes through a healthy diet and regular exercise
• Do not smoke and minimise alcohol intake

To keep the best possible care of your vision, booking in for a regular eye test and wearing prescription glasses, if necessary, will help to prolong eye health. Wearing sunglasses with full UV protection can also provide important protection for your eyes, as solar radiation can cause a number of eye disorders. UV exposure can contribute towards developing cataracts and can also cause macular degeneration.

Glasseonspec supports eye health by providing people with more affordable prescription glasses and sunglasses with UV protection. Good eye health is so important for life quality, and we don’t want people to be priced out of high-quality eyewear, especially with the current rising cost of living, with many people having less money to spend on essentials like glasses.

See our full range of great value eyewear.