Prevalence of remediable disability due to low vision among institutionalised elderly people

Background: Prevalence of remediable visual disability among institutionalised elderly people, resulting from inappropriate use or non-use of low-vision aids, is reported to be high, but largely rests on anecdotal evidence.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of binocular low vision and underlying eye diseases among institutionalised elderly people in a Dutch urban population and the size of remediable visual disability as the result of inappropriately corrected low vision.

Methods: The design was a cross-sectional survey of 284 subjects with low vision (corrected binocular vision <0.4) in nursing homes and homes for the elderly in the Netherlands.

Results: 284 of 610 eligible residents were examined. The prevalence of binocular low vision was 31.3%. Among elderly residents with low vision, prevalence of cataract, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy was 77.9, 37.7, 5.2 and 5.2%, respectively. In 32 residents (41.6%), (non)-use of low-vision aids was considered inappropriate. In 50 residents (64.9%), visual disability was considered at least partially remediable, either through better use of low-vision aids, or through cataract extraction. Residents who were not optimally corrected for low vision were significantly more functionally impaired compared with their peers who were optimally corrected.

Conclusion: Low vision is likely to be highly prevalent among institutionalised elderly. A significant amount of the associated visual disability may be remediable.