Blacks at Greater Risk for Blindness

To the Editor.  —Preventable blindness is and should be a major concern for all opthalmologists. The recent report of the Baltimore (Md) Eye Survey by Tielsch et al¹ in the February 1990 issue of the Archives should be required reading not only for all ophthalmologists, but for all family-practice physicians and other providers of primary health care because of the compelling public health implications of their findings. The authors report the finding of a prevalence rate of blindness among blacks that is double the rate among whites. In 1979, I reported identical findings based on analysis of model reporting area (MRA) data.² In addition, I found that blacks were eight times more likely to be blinded due to glaucoma than whites (Figure and Table).Comparatively, the MRA data in Table 4¹ show a lower prevalence of blindness among blacks (ie, 1.20% in the age group 65 to