Millions of adults may have undetected health conditions after missing routine tests during lockdown
Adults may be suffering undetected health conditions, such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration and even heart disease – because two million people missed a routine eye test during lockdown.Specsavers usually carry out around 8.6 million eye examinations annually and refer more than 600,000 people to hospital or their GP for further investigations.But millions missed tests at the height of the pandemic (March to September 2020) -and almost 130,000 fewer people were referred – meaning many could be unaware they have a health problem.Figures for the same period also revealed referrals were down by nearly half for glaucoma, known as the ‘silent thief of sight’ due to it often being completely symptom-free.A further study of 2,000 adults has revealed that at least one in 10 people fear they might have a serious underlying sight condition, while one in 20 worry that they have a potentially significant issue with their hearing.While half of adults think either their sight, hearing or both have deteriorated since the pandemic began – two thirds (66 per cent) of those have not yet booked a test.According to the research as part of Specsavers Hindsight Report, one in eight (13 per cent) have also missed a hearing test in the last year. Lancaster Guardian…
