Correctable visual impairment in an older population: the blue mountains eye study☆
Section snippets
Design
This study analyzed two cross sections of a community 6 years apart.
Study population
The Blue Mountains Eye Study (BMES) is a population-based survey of vision and common eye diseases in an urban population aged 49 years or older resident in two postal codes of the Blue Mountains region, west of Sydney, Australia. A number of reports have described the methods used.1, 12, 13 The present report uses findings from two cross sections from this population.
Blue Mountain Eye Study I identified 4433 eligible noninstitutionalized permanent residents in a door-to-door census conducted
Results
Table 1 shows characteristics of participants in cross-sections 1 and 2. Age and gender distribution, the duration since the last eye examination, and the proportions married, living alone, owning their home, self-reporting heart disease and stroke, or currently having distance glasses were similar. However, in cross-section 2, a significantly higher proportion had high occupational prestige or self-reported cancer and diabetes, were current drivers, or were dependent on others. Although the
Discussion
Recent reports from the Visual Impairment Project (VIP) and the Blue Mountains Eye Study (BMES) from Australia have highlighted the high frequency of under-corrected or uncorrected refractive error as a cause of visual impairment in older persons.12, 18, 19 The VIP assessed the causes of visual impairment (<20/40) and blindness (either < 20/200 or < 20/400) for both presenting and best-corrected acuity. Under-corrected refraction was responsible for 58% of visual impairment. In the BMES,
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This work was supported by the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council, Canberra, Australia (grants 974159, 991407).