| half price eye tests at an opticians near you! | ||
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| Fact: Every day in the UK another 100 people start to lose their sight. - Royal National Institute of Blind People | |
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| 50 per cent of all sight problems suffered by older people in the UK could be corrected by prescribing correct glasses or lenses. | ||
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Don't be one of these people... ensure you visit your local eye specialist, we’ve organised all the high street opticians into our directory to help you find a store near you to redeem your half price eye test offer. Select an optician chain below to enter our store locator and find the store nearest to you: |
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UK Key Facts & Statistics * About 2,000,000 (two million) people in the UK have significant sight loss. This estimate is derived from a literature review carried out for RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) in 2005 by a team of epidemiologists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Tate et al, 2005) - The prevalence of sight problems in the UK (Word). * The vast majority of people with sight problems are older people, aged 65 and over. The older you are the more likely you are to have a sight problem. Most older people with sight problems started to lose their sight later in life. * There are an estimated 25,000 children with sight problems in the UK, about 12,000 of these children also have other disabilities. * The Department of Health has changed the terminology used for registering sight problems. Ophthalmologists decide if you can be "registered as severely sight impaired" (formerly known as registered blind) if with corrected vision, you can only read the top letter of the eye chart from three metres or less. You can be registered as "sight impaired" (formerly, partially sighted) if with corrected vision, you can only read the top letter of the eye chart from six metres or less. * At the end of March 2006 there were 364,615 people in the UK who were registered as severely sight impaired (blind) or sight impaired (partially sighted). A larger group of people also have significant sight loss, who do not fall into these narrow categories. * Every day another 100 people start to lose their sight. This figure is based on the average number of people each day who registered as severely sight impaired or sight impaired (blind or partially sighted) in Britain in 2003. * Even if your vision seems OK, an eye test can detect problems you don't know you have - and save your sight. RNIB recommends an eye test at least once every two years. * Department of Health figures show that over four million older people do not have regular eye tests, so their potential sight problems are not being identified or treated. * Over 50 per cent of all sight problems in older people are estimated to be due to untreated refractive error or cataracts. * Seventy percent of blind and partially sighted adults have other disabilities or long term health problems in addition to their sight loss. * The prevalence of sight loss increases with age, and the UK population is ageing. In addition there is a growing incidence in key underlying causes of sight loss such as obesity and diabetes. This means, that without action, the numbers of people with sight problems in the UK are likely to increase dramatically over the next 25 years. |
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