Pfizer Japan Conducts Online Eye Health Survey of Japanese People Age

JCNN News Summaries - Japan Corporate News Network, Oct 28, 2005 by Aki Tsukioka

Tokyo, Oct 28, 2005 - (JCN) - Pfizer Japan announced on October 27 the results of its latest attitude survey on eye health. The company surveyed a total of 7,958 Japanese people aged over 40 (4,471 men and 3,487 women) from September 9 to 13 via the Internet.

Of the respondents, 77.9% answered that they have experienced some sorts of abnormalities of the eyes such as blurred eyesight. Of those with a positive answer, only 11.4% suspect of having eye disease while the majority of them consider that it is just due to aging (73.9%) or eyestrains caused by intensely looking at a PC monitor. Further, only 37.7% of the respondents said that they have consulted an ophthalmologist within the last two years.

When asked what they care most about their eyes, 63.5% cited a decline in or the loss of vision, followed by presbyopia (49.3%), narrowed visual fields (30.7%) and optic nerve damage (21.7%).

Of the respondents, 30.1% said that they have had a visual field examination, and only 13.8% recognize its importance. At the same time, 86.2% do not know that the visual field examination is effective in diagnosing not only eye and optic nerve diseases but also brain diseases such as pituitary tumor.

Regarding normal tension glaucoma (NTG), 32.4% answered that they know of the disease and most of them have obtained information on NTG through newspaper articles or TV programs. Further, of those who know of NTG, 58.7% understand that the major symptom is the constriction of the visual field. Normal tension glaucoma is one of the major eye diseases that one in every 28 Japanese people aged 40 or over 40 may develop.