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. 2014 Jan;98(1):129-32.
doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2013-304149. Epub 2013 Oct 29.

Correlation between visual acuity and cognitive functions

Sivan M Elyashiv  1 , Esther L Shabtai, Michael Belkin
Affiliations

Correlation between visual acuity and cognitive functions

Sivan M Elyashiv et al. Br J Ophthalmol. 2014 Jan.

Abstract

A possible association between visual acuity (VA) and dementia was investigated in 2716 subjects who were aged between 53 and 102 at first visit and had varying degrees of dementia. Better VA was found to be significantly correlated with a lower dementia level (person coefficient range 0.146-0.261 over 10 years of follow-up, all correlations are significant, p<0.0001) as well as with a higher global cognitive score (person coefficient range -0.254 to -0.318 over 10 years of follow-up, all correlations are significant, p<0.0001), a grade encompassing 19 different cognitive tests. This correlation remained significant after adjustment for age, years of education, gender, use of ophthalmic drugs and years of follow-up.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests

None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Changes in visual acuity (VA), global cognitive score (GCS) and dementia over 18 years of follow-up. Access the article online to view this figure in colour.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Correlation between visual acuity (VA) and dementia level (global cognitive score (GCS)) over 10 years of follow-up. The GCS shows a negative correlation with VA because a higher VA score (as arbitrarily determined in this study) signifies a lower VA. This relationship is maintained during the first 7 follow-up years, as higher VA can be seen to be correlated with better (higher) GCS. Access the article online to view this figure in colour.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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