title: Public Attitudes About Eye and Vision Health.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Understanding the importance of eye health to the US population across ethnic and racial groups helps guide strategies to preserve vision in Americans and inform policy makers regarding priority of eye research to Americans.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To understand the importance and awareness of eye health in the US population across ethnic and racial groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  Online nationwide poll created by experienced policy makers in August 2014 designed to understand the importance of eye health in the US population, although the poll was not subjected previously to formal construct-validity testing. The population survey comprised 2044 US adults including non-Hispanic white individuals and minority groups with minority oversampling to provide predicted margins of error no greater than 5%.
  
  
  METHODS
  Respondent attitudes on the importance of eye health, concerns about losing vision, support for eye health research, and awareness of eye diseases and risk factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 2044 survey respondents, the weighten mean age was 46.2 years, 48% were male, and 11% were uninsured. Sixty three percent reported wearing glasses. Most individuals surveyed (87.5%; 95% CI, 84.5%-90%) believed that good vision is vital to overall health while 47.4% (95% CI, 43.7%-51.1%) rated losing vision as the worst possible health outcome. Respondents ranked losing vision as equal to or worse than losing hearing, memory, speech, or a limb. When asked about various possible consequences of vision loss, quality of life ranked as the top concern followed by loss of independence. Nearly two-thirds of respondents were aware of cataracts (65.8%) or glaucoma (63.4%); only half were aware of macular degeneration; 37.3% were aware of diabetic retinopathy; and 25% were not aware of any eye conditions. Approximately 75.8% and 58.3%, respectively, identified sunlight and family heritage as risk factors for losing vision; only half were aware of smoking risks on vision loss.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this well-characterized survey across all US ethnic and racial groups, vision health was a priority with high support for ongoing research for vision and eye health. Many Americans were unaware of important eye diseases and their behavioral or familial risk factors. The consistency of these findings among the varying ethnic/racial groups underscores the importance of educating the public on eye health and mobilizing public support for vision research.
authors.affiliation: Wilmer Eye Institute, Retina Division, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Adrienne W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Wilmer Eye Institute, Retina Division, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland2Editor, JAMA Ophthalmology.
authors.forename: Neil M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Bressler
authors.affiliation: Research!America, Alexandria, Virginia.
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ffolkes
authors.affiliation: Public Health Analytics, NORC at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Wittenborn
authors.affiliation: Alliance for Eye and Vision Research, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jorkasky
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005006:Ethnicity; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008913:Minority Groups; D009017:Morbidity / Q000639:trends; D011639:Public Opinion; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology