RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif.— VSP Vision Care has released a list of the top 10 most “eye healthy” cities in the U.S. The ranking indicates those cities whose residents get their eyes examined most frequently, from data based on the percentage of people who received an eye exam in 2011, who have VSP Vision Care benefits in markets where VSP covers 100,000 people or more.

The 2012 Eye Health Index of the most eye healthy cities include Providence, R.I.*; Wichita, Kan.; Raleigh, N.C.*; Birmingham, Ala.*; Denver, Colo.; Columbus, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; San Jose, Calif.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; and Sacramento, Calif. An asterisk indicates that the city’s surrounding area was included in the tabulation.

Cities whose residents get their eyes examined most frequently were determined as the most “eye healthy cities in America” by VSP because “through a comprehensive eye exam, eye doctors check for underlying vision problems and eye diseases. Also, eye exams are used as one of the leading methods of detecting early signs of chronic diseases such as diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension.

Because eye exams provide the only unobstructed view of a person’s blood vessels, eye doctors can detect signs of chronic disease years before a patient displays symptoms and before they are identified by any other medical professional,” according to a study by Human Capital Resource Management Services.

To determine these rankings, a VSP spokesperson told VMail, “We looked at our entire population of VSP members, more than 57 million. We then looked at all claims data for 2011 to see which parts of the country used their eye exam benefit the most, but first we excluded any area with less than 100,000 members to make sure the sample size was representative. The data is limited to the scope of VSP Vision Care members.”