Disease prevention and health promotion are two strategies that, when deployed together, can foster greater individual and public awareness of the link between vision loss and eye disease and modifiable behaviors—such as smoking or unsafe occupational or recreational eye safety practices— and unmodifiable risk factors—such as personal health status and family history. Many chronic diseases that intersect with vision loss—such as diabetes-related eye disease and vision loss—can be prevented by eating well, physical activity, avoiding tobacco use, and getting regular preventive eye care and health services on a consistent and appropriate basis.
Vision and eye health have a natural fit in programmatic approaches that promote basic health and wellness and seek to improve Americans’ quality of life. By advocating alongside broad chronic disease prevention efforts and promoting overall health and wellness, Prevent Blindness is contributing to a reduction in the national prevalence of vision problems and eye disease and the significant costs of vision loss to patients, communities, and our national health care system.