Latinos have higher rates of developing visual impairment, blindness, diabetic eye disease, and cataracts than non-Hispanic whites, according to the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study (LALES), a large research initiative supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI), which is part of the National Institutes of Health. LALES researchers found that over a four-year interval studied, Latinos developed visual impairment and blindness at the highest rate of any ethnic group in the country.
The results of this study have far-reaching implications for the estimated 45 million Latinos living in the U. S.
According to the National Institutes of Health, 10.4 percent of Hispanics/Latinos ages 20 years or older have diagnosed diabetes. Certain eye diseases like blindness and cataracts are strongly associated with diabetes since high blood glucose 
But, surprisingly, these trends were only found for certain eye conditions. Latinos in the study had low rates of early and late age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In fact, they were half as likely to develop early AMD and one-third as likely to develop late AMD as compared to non-Hispanic whites.
