The implications for everyday life of incident self-reported visual decline among people over age 65 living in the community

Abstract

We examined the consequences of incident self-reported vision loss among a cohort of community-living people aged 66 years and older. Those with visual decline were older than those reporting constant excellent or good vision, but not different in any other demographic characteristic, the use of formal support services, the use of health services, or ADL (activities of daily living) functioning. Controlling for age and sex, vision loss was associated with unmet instrumental ADL needs such as housekeeping, grocery shopping, and food preparation, and with physical and emotional disabilities. We discuss the implications of these disabilities in terms of the challenges to the aging and blindness service delivery systems.