Low vision common in nursing home populations

Among the elderly in nursing homes, low vision is the most common visual ailment, with more than one-third having a visual acuity worse than 20/40 in the better eye, results of a large cohort study found. The researchers also found that cataract is more likely to cause low vision in African Americans than in whites.

David S. Friedman, MD, MPH, and colleagues at the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology analyzed data from the Salisbury Eye Evaluation in Nursing Home Groups (SEEING) Study, a cohort of 28 nursing homes in eastern Maryland and Delaware. Visual acuity was measured using both recognition charts and preferential looking techniques.

A total of 1,307 residents participated in the study, of whom 496 had best corrected visual acuity worse than 20/40 in the better-seeing eye. Of those patients, the rate of low vision between African Americans and whites was similar.

Cataract was the leading cause of low vision, the researchers said. Of the African-American residents, cataract accounted for 54% of those affected with low vision, compared with 37% of the white residents affected by low vision. Macular degeneration caused 29% of the low vision in white residents, but was only responsible for low vision in 7% of the African-American residents. Glaucoma resulted in low vision at a higher rate in African Americans as well, with 10% of the subjects affected compared with 4% of white residents. Refractive error was not a factor in low vision rates in this population, the researchers said.

The study is published in the July issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.