Posters

Work productivity losses due to blindness in working Chinese adults aged ≥50 years and their caregivers

Poster Details

First Author: Y.Zhong CHINA

Co Author(s):    L. Zhaohui   M. Dhariwal                 

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To estimate the patient and caregiver burden resulting from productivity losses in working Chinese adults aged ≥50 years suffering from blindness.

Setting:

Decision analytic modelling from China’s perspective.

Methods:

A productivity loss estimator model was developed in Microsoft Excel. Input parameters: prevalence of blindness in the working Chinese adults aged ≥50 years was sourced from Zhao et al. epidemiology study. On average 50% loss of remaining working-age years per blind person was assumed after considering state retirement age-limit (5 and 2.5 years respectively men and women). World Bank data on Chinese Gross National Income per capita ($8,690) was used. Assuming one caregiver per blind person, caregiver productivity loss was set at 10% and number of years of lost productivity for caregivers were assumed at 3.75 years.

Results:

An estimated 1.66 million Chinese men and 0.96 million Chinese women aged ≥50 years in the working age population suffered from blindness. Productivity loss due to blindness in working Chinese adults aged ≥50 years and their caregivers was estimated to be $102.4 billion ($72.1 billion for men, $21.6 billion for women, and $8.6 billion for their caregivers). Productivity losses in cataract related blindness, the cumulative burden for men, women and their caregivers was estimated at $53.9 billion (due to cataract) and $25.4 billion (due to retinal diseases).

Conclusions:

Blindness affects 1.7% of China’s population ≥50 years and it poses significant burden on society due to losses in work productivity. Health policy makers should aim to further improve access to vision care and reduce the incidence and prevalence of preventable blindness in China.

Financial Disclosure:

is employed by a for-profit company with an interest in the subject of the presentation, receives consulting fees, retainer, or contract payments from a competing company