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AMD patients with less social support have higher stress levels

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NEW ORLEANS – Researchers found an inverse correlation between social support and perceived stress among patients with age-related macular degeneration.

Bradley E. Dougherty, OD, PhD, FAAO, reported here at a press conference sponsored by the American Academy of Optometry that he and colleagues evaluated stress levels among 84 patients with a history of exudative AMD and a mean age of 80 years. The mean better eye visual acuity was 20/60.

Bradley E. Dougherty

They used the Perceived Stress Scale, Impact of Vision Impairment Survey and ENRICHD Social Support Inventory. Stress was adjusted for age, gender, educational level, self-reported visual functioning and visual acuity, he said.

“Social support was a significant predictor of levels of perceived stress in patients with neovascular AMD, and the strength of the correlation was larger than has been previously reported,” according to the study abstract.

“We know from a lot of fields that high levels of social support and low levels of perceived stress are related to better outcomes,” Dougherty said at the press conference. “These are often overlooked; because of normal programming, we have to think about vision.

“There is a lot of evidence that perceived stress results in immune dysfunction and inflammation, and AMD is an inflammatory disease,” he continued.

Dougherty said that AMD has potentially devastating consequences, as it affects central vision, and the problem is becoming bigger as the population ages.

“People with AMD face significant stressors: the prospect of a life of visual impairment and perhaps legal blindness,” he said. “The ophthalmologist tells them the treatment plan is multiple injections into the eyeball with a potentially scary substance.

“There are interventions from vision and outside of vision research, interventions that address this and manage stress,” Dougherty concluded. “Patients benefit from increased awareness of these factors, and health outcomes are likely to improve.” – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS, FAAO

Disclosure: No products were mentioned that would require financial disclosure.