Change in the population pool of vision impairing cataract, over a 5 year period to year 2001. The level of cataract surgery during the period is assumed to follow current practice (including the yearly increases observed in 1994–5 and 1995–6). The proportion of operations performed on people aged 65 and older and on those with visual acuity of < 6/12 are also assumed to follow current practice
| Age group | Pool of unoperated cataract: | Change (%) | Cases expected to die without the benefit of surgery | Operations performed over the 5 year period: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At start of the 5 year period | At end of the 5 year period | On all cataract cases, aged 65 and older | On <6/12 vision cases, aged 65 and older | ||||||
| 65+ | 2 356 546 | 2 556 477 | +199 931 (8.48%) | 732 836 | 764 330 | 560 571 | |||