Global patterns in vision loss burden due to Vitamin A deficiency from 1990 to 2017.

Objective To investigate the vision loss burden due to vitamin A deficiency (VAD) at the global, regional, and national levels by year, age, sex, and socioeconomic status using prevalence and years lived with disability (YLDs). Design International, retrospective, comparative burden-of-disease study. Setting Prevalence and YLDs data were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2017. The association of age-standardized YLD rates and human development index (HDI) was tested by Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses. The Gini coefficient and concentration index (CI) were calculated to demonstrate the trends in between-country inequality in vision loss burden due to VAD. Participants All participants met the GBD inclusion criteria. Results The age-standardized prevalence rate increased by 9.2%, while the age-standardized YLD rates rose by 10.8% from 1990 to 2017. Notably, the vision loss burden caused by VAD showed a declining trend since 2014. The vision loss burden was more concentrated in the post-neonatal age group and decreased with increasing age. The age-standardized YLD rates were inversely correlated with HDI (r = -0.2417, p = 0.0084). The CI and Gini coefficients indicated that socioeconomic-related and between-country inequality declined from 2000 to 2017. VAD was the 8th leading cause of the age-standardized prevalence rate and 9th leading cause of age-standardized YLDs rate among 15 causes of vision loss in 2017. Conclusion VAD has become one of the significant leading causes of vision loss globally. Efforts to control vision impairment related to VAD are needed, especially for children in countries with lower socioeconomic status.