TOPLINE:

In a US study of about 153,000 children conducted from 2021 to 2023, families with a child with vision impairment were much more likely to experience food insecurity and more severe food shortages than families with children without vision impairment. These differences remained after accounting for household income, parental education, and most demographic factors.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers performed a cross‑sectional analysis of data from a nationally representative US sample to assess the association between vision impairment in children, as reported by their caregivers, and household food insecurity.
• They analyzed data from 153,285 children aged 0-17 years (51% boys; 49% non-Hispanic White) from the 2021-2023 National Survey of Children’s Health, representing a weighted total of 209,400,289 US children.
• The primary exposure was a caregiver’s affirmative answer to the standard survey question asking whether the child had blindness or trouble seeing even when wearing glasses.
• The primary outcome was household food insecurity, measured by a standard question on food sufficiency and classified into four levels: food secure, marginal, low, and very low.
• The analysis was adjusted for age, sex, and race or ethnicity of the child, as well as household income, parental education, household size, and marital status of the caregiver.

TAKEAWAY:

• The national prevalence of caregiver-reported vision impairment was 1.7%; the overall prevalence of any level of food insecurity was significantly higher in households with a child with vision impairment than in those with children without vision impairment (50% vs 29%; P < .001).
• Households with a child with vision impairment had 71% higher odds of being food insecure (adjusted odds ratio, 1.71; P < .001) than households with children without vision impairment.
• Having a child with vision impairment was associated with 77% higher odds of having a more severe category of household food insecurity across the four-level outcome (P < .001).
• The association between vision impairment in children and household food insecurity was largely consistent across demographic groups and did not differ by household income, parental education, or the age of the child.

IN PRACTICE:

Families of children with visual impairment “often incur substantial direct costs, including medical care, assistive devices, and specialized educational materials that are frequently not covered by insurance, as well as indirect costs such as reducedparental employment due to increased caregiving demands. These financial strains divert limited household resources away from meeting basic needs such as food,” the researchers reported.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Tushar Talaparthy, of the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine in Houston. It was published online on November 17, 2025, in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

LIMITATIONS:

The cross-sectional design prevented determination of causality between vision impairment and food insecurity. Assessment of vision impairment relied on a single caregiver-reported question without clinical details about cause, severity, or age at onset. Potential residual confounding from unmeasured variables such as coexisting disabilities or parental employment remained possible. 

DISCLOSURES:

This study did not report any source of funding. The authors reported having no relevant conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.