Vision loss risky for older people

WORLD / Health

Vision loss risky for older people

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-10 13:52

NEW YORK - Older men and women with cataracts or age-related macular
degeneration (ARMD) are at increased risk for suffering an early death,
relative to older people without these two types of visual impairment, a
study hints.

But it's not clear, the study team notes, whether the vision loss is
simply a marker for deterioration due to aging or if, in and of itself,
the conditions boost mortality risk.

While a number of studies have found visual impairment boosts mortality
risk among older people, research on the relationship between cataracts
or ARMD and mortality has yielded mixed results, Sudha Cugati of the
University of Sydney and colleagues note in the Archives of Ophthalmology.

Cataracts occur when the clear lens over the eye clouds up, while ARMD is
a progressive deterioration of the back of the retina.

To better understand how ARMD and cataracts might relate to mortality,
Cugati and colleagues looked at 3,654 people 49 and older who were
participating in a long-term study of eye health.

Fifty-four percent of people with any type of visual impairment died
during the study's 11-year follow-up period, the researchers found,
compared with 34 percent of those with no vision problems.

Mortality during follow-up was 45.8 percent for those with ARMD, versus
33.7 percent for those without the condition. And 39.2 percent of people
with cataract died during the study's follow-up period, compared to 29.5
percent of those with no cataracts.

Once the researchers used statistical techniques to adjust for other
factors linked to mortality risk, the increased risk of death with
cataracts remained significant, while the increased risk of mortality
with ARMD was significant only for people younger than 75.

"This is an important finding given that a major proportion of visual
impairment is due to treatable causes," Cugati and colleagues write.
There are a number of ways in which vision loss could increase mortality
risk, they add, for example by causing disability, depression and loss of
independence.

People who had had cataract surgery previously were not at increased risk
of dying during the study follow-up, the researchers note. "This could be
partly explained by the likely healthier lifestyle and health awareness
among persons undergoing cataract surgery and could provide evidence to
support benefits from interventions to correct visual impairments in
older persons," they write.

If future research finds that vision loss does indeed lead to an earlier
death, they add, "regular assessment of vision in older persons may lead
to early detection, facilitating treatments that could reduce the impact
of visual impairment."

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