GLAUCOMA

According to The Glaucoma Foundation (2001), approximately 3 million people in 

the U.S. have glaucoma, including 6% of those over the age of 65.   

Approximately 2.2 million  Americans (1.9%) age 40 and older, have glaucoma 

(Prevent Blindness America, 2002).  

About 163,000, or 2%, of persons age 40 and older in New York State have 

glaucoma (Prevent Blindness America, 2002). 

Glaucoma is the 3

rd

 leading cause of blindness worldwide and is responsible for 

about 5.2 million cases of blindness.  Estimates of the number of persons 

worldwide who have glaucoma range from 67 million (The Glaucoma Foundation, 

2001) to about 105 million "suspect" cases of glaucoma (World Health 

Organization, 1997c). 

Ethnic differences in the prevalence of glaucoma are evident as indicated in the following 

estimates: 

Almost 4% of Blacks (409,643) (age 40 and over) are reported to have glaucoma 

as compared to about 1.7% of Whites (1.6 million) and 1.5% of Hispanics 

(131,654) (Prevent Blindness America, 2002). 

Based on findings from the Baltimore Eye Survey, the prevalence of vision 

impairment due to glaucoma is four to six times higher among blacks than 

Caucasians (Tielsch, Sommer, Witt, Katz, & Royall, 1990). 

Research on a population based sample found that glaucoma is the leading cause 

of blindness among Hispanics (Rodriguez, 2002).  

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