Current situation of rehabilitation for the visually impaired There are 16.91 million visually impaired persons in China, and cataract is the primary blinding factor. Due to the aging of China’s population and the high incidence of cataracts, there are about 500,000 new cataract patients nationwide each year, and the difficulty of surgeries for impoverished patients is still prominent. There are 11.13 million people with low vision in China, 90% of whom have rehabilitation needs. There are 5.78 million blind people in China, and orientation and mobility training for the blind is generally not carried out. “During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, China completed 4.236 million cataract surgeries, of which 1.276 million surgeries were performed free of charge for impoverished patients; cumulatively, more than 63,000 blind people received orientation and mobility training; more than 173,000 low-vision people were fitted with visual aids; and 65,000 parents of low-vision children were trained. According to the “2015-2020 Analysis Report on Development Prospects and Investment Forecast of China’s Rehabilitation Medical Industry” released by the Prospective Industry Research Institute, in 2013, the country completed 746,000 cases of cataract sight-restoring surgeries, a year-on-year decrease of 6.28%, and performed sight-restoring surgeries free of charge for 291,000 impoverished cataract patients. Chart 1: Statistics on cataract sight-restoring surgeries completed in China from 2008 to 2013 (Unit: 10,000 cases, %) Source: Compiled by the Prospective Industry Research Institute In 2013, the country dispensed vision aids to 129,000 low-vision patients, trained 38,000 parents of low-vision children, and effectively carried out family rehabilitation training. Orientation and mobility training was provided to 12.0 million blind people. Chart 2: 2006-2013 Low Vision Rehabilitation and Orientation and Mobility Training for the Blind (Unit: 10,000 people) Source: Compiled by the Prospective Industry Research Institute Rehabilitation Demand Gap for Visual Disabilities2007-2013, the proportion of people with disabilities in China with visual disabilities who have received rehabilitation treatment has been on an overall upward trend.In 2013, the proportion of people with disabilities in China with visual disabilities who have received rehabilitation treatment was 58.3 percent. As of 2013, 41.7% of the visually impaired in China had not received rehabilitation treatment, and there is still a large gap in the demand for rehabilitation for the visually impaired. Figure 3: Proportion of persons with visual disabilities who have received rehabilitation treatment in China, 2007-2013 (Unit: %) Source: Prospective Industry Research Institute Prospect of demand for rehabilitation for persons with visual disabilities Population aging is an inevitable result of economic development and social progress, and is a general law of population development in the world. As early as 1965, France first became the world’s first elderly country, followed by Sweden. in the mid-to-late 20th century, Europe, the United States and other developed countries entered the elderly society one after another. Currently, more than half of the world’s older persons live in Asia, accounting for 54 per cent, followed by Europe, with 22 per cent. The twenty-first century will see continued growth, with the proportion of older persons in the world having risen from 8 per cent in 1950 to 10 per cent in 2000, and predicted to reach 21 per cent in 2050. From the point of view of changes in the proportion of elderly people over 65 years of age to the total population, there is a rising trend year by year, and as of the end of 2013, the number of elderly people over 65 years of age in China amounted to 132 million people, accounting for 9.7% of the total population. Figure 4: The number and proportion of elderly population over 65 years old in China from 2007 to 2013 (Unit: 100 million, %) Source: Prospective Industry Research Institute With the aging of China’s population and the incidence of cataracts continuing to go up, China’s demand for rehabilitation for the visually impaired will also increase.