A survey done by the CDC shows that many Americans are not visiting an eye doctor to get the eye care that they need. There is more than one reason why this is happening. The biggest reason why people are not going to the eye doctor is because they do not have health insurance that would cover it. Without insurance, it is too costly for most people to be able to afford.
The Center for Disease Control did a survey that involved 11,503 American adults. All of the people in the survey were age 40 or older, and all of them were considered to have a moderate to severe visual impairment. For the purposes of this survey, people were considered to be visually impaired if they would have difficultly recognizing a friend who was standing across the street from them, or with reading newspapers, menus, magazines, etc.
One would assume that this particular group of people would be in need of regular visits to an eye doctor. Instead, many of the respondents were failing to seek out eye care. The survey then asked the people who had not been to see an eye doctor in over a year to tell them the reasons why they were not going to the eye doctor.
The biggest reason why people were not going to the eye doctor was because they lacked health insurance that would cover the cost of that kind of care. These people could not afford to pay for a visit to the eye doctor themselves. This answer was given by 42.8% of people who were between age 40 and 64, and 23.3% of people who were age 65 or older.
Another reason why people didn’t seek eye care was because they felt that they did not need it. Overall, 36.9% of the people surveyed who had no age-related eye disease said that they didn’t need to see an eye doctor. Around 28.2% of the people who actually did have age related eye diseases said that they didn’t need an eye doctor, either. Perhaps these people felt they were doing just fine with old eye prescriptions, or with the “cheater glasses” that one can get over the counter.
Those numbers can be broken down by gender, and by age bracket. 43.8% of people who were age 65 or older said that they had no need for an eye exam, while only 32.9% of people who were between age 40 and age 64 felt that way. 41.7% of men said they didn’t have a need for an eye doctor, while only 28.7% of women said the same. Researchers thought some of this could be attributed to the belief that it is “normal” for people to have vision problems as they get older.
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