EssilorLuxottica and the World Council of Optometry (WCO) have announced a global partnership to raise awareness of presbyopia and the ageing eye, launching the initiative in World Optometry Week 2024.
The initiative aims to establish standards of care for eye care professionals to follow when managing presbyopia. The program will also help eye care professionals with the latest evidence-based scientific approaches, tools, and resources focussed on the three pillars of mitigation, measurement, and management of presbyopia.
People typically begin to develop presbyopia when they reach 40–45 years of age. Currently, there are an estimated 2.1 billion people worldwide with presbyopia,1 and as the world’s population is ageing, that number is expected to rise to more than four billion by 2050.2
To ensure accessibility, the presbyopia management assets will be published on both the WCO microsite and EssilorLuxottica’s learning platform, Leonardo. Further updates on the available content and resources will be announced in the coming months.
WCO President Dr Sandra Block said, “We are excited to partner with EssilorLuxottica to bring the importance of addressing our patients’ needs to see well up close. There are many new options to address presbyopia, and we agree that it is important to bring the information to the eye care practitioner so they can provide the best care for the patients. Along with helping to ensure evidence-based techniques are used, the partnership will highlight the eye health changes that are on-going as the patients grow older.”
References
1. Eliminating poor vision in a generation Essilor SAS 2019 Market Scope, Global Presbyopia-Correcting Surgery Market Report, April 2012.
2. Global population of 7.6 billion people in 2020 and 10 billion people in 2050 Source: United Nations, internal analysis.
