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Younger, older patients react differently to vision impairment
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PHOENIX – Researchers found that patients with age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy cope with low vision differently depending on age, according to a poster presented here at Academy 2012.
Caitlin E. Murphy, MSc, and colleagues at the Montreal School of Optometry drew data from 135 participants in the Montreal Barriers Study database. All patients were eligible for low vision services according to the Quebec Ministry of Health and were given questionnaires to assess visual function, coping quality and depressive symptomatology, according to the poster. Patients were between 23 and 95 years of age.
Study results showed that older adults experience more denial and find it more difficult to adapt to their vision loss. Regardless of age, the longer individuals live with visual impairment, the more they accept it and learn to live with it, according to the poster. Older patients blame themselves less for the vision loss than younger patients.
“Age is a big risk factor in the ability to cope with visual impairment,” Murphy told Primary Care Optometry News. “You may want to interact differently with older patients vs. younger. Older patients accept more blame, but, in general, younger patients cope better.”
The study also found that “depression doesn’t affect coping,” Murphy said. “Just because you’re depressed doesn’t mean you aren’t coping well.”
Murphy told PCON that previous posters presented at ARVO showed that patients with different ethnic backgrounds had different coping strategies.