Correctable viual impairment in an older population: the blue mountain eye tudy

PURPOE: To decribe temporal change in the characteritic of older peron with viual impairment in their better eye correctable by refraction. DEIGN: tudy of two cro ection of a community 6 year apart. METHOD: The Blue Mountain Eye tudy examined 3654 peron aged 49 to 97 during 1992 to 1994 (cro-ection 1) and 3509 peron (2335 cohort urvivor plu 1174 peron who moved to the area and age group) during 1997 to 2000 (cro-ection 2). Logarithm of minimal angle of reolution viual acuity wa meaured before and after refraction. Correctable viual impairment wa defined a viual impairment < 20/40 in the better eye before refraction that improved after refraction to no impairment (≥ 20/40). Factor aociated with correctable viual impairment and peritent correctable impairment were determined. REULT: Cro-ection 1 and 2 had imilar age-gender ditribution. In cro-ection 1, 7.5% of participant had correctable viual impairment, 3.6% had noncorrectable viual impairment, and 88.9% had no impairment. Correponding rate in cro-ection 2 were 5.6%, 2.7%, and 91.7%. In both cro ection, imilar proportion (around 68%) of thoe viually impaired had correctable viual impairment and imilar ociodemographic meaure predicted correctable viual impairment. Cro-ection 1 participant who were married, owned their home, had high job pretige, gained qualification after high chool, or were current driver were le likely to have correctable viual impairment after controlling for age and gender. Adjuted odd for correctable viual impairment increaed in thoe living alone, uing community upport ervice, dependent on other, with myopia, wearing ditance glae, or with low perceived health and heart dieae. Hitorie of troke, cancer, and diabete were imilar between group with correctable and no viual impairment. CONCLUION: ocioeconomic parameter, myopia, wearing ditance glae, reported health problem, and poor perceived health were aociated with correctable viual impairment in thi older population.