332010
Just out of sight: Mild visual impairment and its impact on self-care
Older age and limited health literacy are established barriers to self-management, which is essential to managing one’s overall health. Mild visual impairment may also be an unrecognized and easily correctible impediment to self-care. We sought to determine if mild visual impairment was an independent risk factor for worse self-management skills among older adults.
methods:
We used baseline data from a cohort study of 895 older adults, ages 55-74, recruited from an academic internal medicine clinic and six federally qualified health centers in Chicago. Self-management skills were measured using a validated, objective assessment of performance on everyday health tasks. Vision with corrective lenses was assessed with the Snellen [normal (20/20 – 25/20) vs. near normal (20/30 – 20/50)]. We modeled visual acuity predicting health task performance with linear regression, controlling for age, race, health literacy, number of chronic conditions and prescription medications.
results:
Participants’ mean age was 63 years; 69% were women, 45% African American, and 30% had limited health literacy. Normal vision was associated with better overall health task performance (β 2.57; 95% CI 0.48-4.59, p<.05), with greatest detriment in recalling health information conveyed via multimedia (β 4.19; 95% CI 0.66-7.65, p<.05), and accurately dosing multi-drug regimens (β 2.68; 95% CI 0.00-5.37, p=.05). A non-significant trend was found for interpreting medical information on print documents (β 1.99; 95% CI -0.44-4.42, p=.10).
conclusions:
Public health initiatives that target mild visual impairment within a normal range may improve self-care behaviors. Health systems and relevant industries should consider this when designing health information, materials and devices.
Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and preventionLearning Objectives:
Describe the role mild visual impairment plays in self-care behaviors among older adults.
Keyword(s): Self-Management, Aging
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Research Project Manager on multiple federally funded grants examining the relationship between health literacy and self-management behaviors and its impact on health outcomes.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.