Background To date, over 300 million people worldwide live with low vision and blindness from all causes, which imposes social and economic burdens on individual and families. This study examines the association between vision impairment and health outcomes in Thailand.

Methods Data derived from a national cohort of 87 134 adults residing throughout Thailand. We report ORs from logistic regression as well as Population Attributable Fractions (PAFs) linking vision impairment to an array of health and psychological outcomes.

Results Approximately 28% of the cohort members reported refractive errors and about 8% had uncorrectable vision impairment. Awareness of refractive errors was associated with higher income and urban residence. Both types of vision impairment were positively associated with poor self-assessed health (age-sex adjusted ORs ranging from 1.50 to 2.18) and poor psychological health (age-sex adjusted ORs ranging from 1.35 to 1.86). PAFs show that correctable and uncorrectable vision impairment explain respectively 12.3% and 8.5% of poor self-assessed health, 8.9% and 6.3% of poor psychological health, and 3.5% and 3.6% of falls in the last year.

Conclusions We have found associations between vision impairments and various adverse health outcomes along with socioeconomic gradients for access to refractive corrections. Refractive error is the easiest to detect by regular eye check ups. Incorporating early detection and prevention at the primary healthcare will help to promote the eye health of Thais.