The Cost to Wellbeing when living with an IRD

On World Sight Day, 2020, Retina International published a Cost of Illness study outlining the economic burden of IRDs in the US and Canada. This was the second publication in our suite of IRDCOUNTS studies, following a pilot study carried out in the UK and Republic of Ireland in 2019.

Amongst many key findings from these studies, one stood out above all: across all four countries studied to date, “wellbeing” has consistently ranked as the largest cost to those who live with an IRD. The scale and significance of these findings has warranted further discussion on what is a clear and urgent unmet need for the IRD community.

So, how do we define wellbeing? How were these costs calculated? What factors are making such a significant impact on the wellbeing of those living with IRDs – and how do we mitigate them?