The World Sight Day is globally observed on the second Thursday of October and this year it falls on October 13. The day is observed to encourage people to focus on eye health, conditions of blindness, sight impairment, and other eyesight issue. It also recognises the work done by ophthalmologists across the world to fix vision impairment.

History

The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) has been coordinating the global initiative, the World Sight Day, since 2000. In 2020, the late Queen Elizabeth joined the awareness campaign. The following year, the ‘Love your Eyes’ campaign received more than three million pledges across the globe.

More than 150 IAPB member organisations support World Sight Day, including major eye care NGOs, professional bodies for ophthalmology and optometry, hospitals and corporations.

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Theme

Following the success of the ‘Love Your Eyes’ campaign in 2021, the IAPB is continuing with the theme for World Sight Day 2022. The agency aims to have five million sight tests pledged, host screenings in the most influential buildings in the world and also show people how to care for their eyes with fun and engaging social assets.

Significance

Eye health is important as loss of sight can adversely affect quality of life, education, daily activities and employment. At the same time, World Sight Day is important as it highlights the fact that more than a billion people across the world are not able to see properly as they do not have access to glasses. Of these, a billion people have addressable or preventable vision impairment.

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Tips to improve eyesight

According to the National Institute for Aging, one should get regular eye exams to ensure that any problem does not go unnoticed. The institute suggests conducting a dilated eye exam once every year or once in two years for the following individuals:

Those who are at least 60 years old.

Those with a family history of glaucoma.

Diabetics.

Those who suffer from hypertension.

Some of the other tips to improve eyesight include wearing protective gear against harmful UV radiation, quitting smoking, following a nutritious diet with carotenoids, zinc, vitamins C and E, staying physically active, maintaining a healthy weight, and keeping a check on diabetes and blood pressure levels.

“To keep eyes healthy, the same things that keep the rest of you healthy work best,” Forbes quoted Sebastian Heersink, an ophthalmologist at Eye Center South in Dothan, Alabama, as saying.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)