THURSDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- More than half of nursing home residents may have serious visual impairments and as many as two-thirds of them aren't receiving eye examinations, according to study findings published in the July issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.
Cynthia Owsley, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and colleagues studied 380 residents of 17 Birmingham-area nursing homes. They measured habitual distance and near visual acuity and contrast sensitivity for each eye and binocularly, interviewed residents and a family member/guardian about spectacle use and eye care utilization, and examined the residents' medical records.
The researchers found that 57 percent of residents' distance visual acuity in the better eye was worse than 20/40, 10 percent had visual acuity of 20/200 or worse, and 75 percent had abnormal binocular contrast sensitivity. They also found that 66 percent of the medical records contained no mention of eye examinations, even though 90 percent of the subjects had health insurance that would cover eye-care services.
"These findings underscore the need to better understand the causes of high visual impairment rates in nursing home residents and to evaluate interventions to improve the visual status of this population," the authors conclude.
Abstract
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)
