Vision Impairment in Older Adults

Running head: VISION IMPAIRMENT IN OLDER ADULTS
VISION IMPAIRMENT IN OLDER ADULTS
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1VISION IMPAIMENTS IN OLDER ADULTS
The visual impairment has a detrimental impact when it comes to the disability
worldwide (Pan et al., 2016). According to the World Health Organization there are
approximately 1.3 million people in the world who are associated with some of form of visual
impairment (World Health Organization, 2019). Among these people majority of them who
have vision impairment are above 50 years of age. However, when it comes to the older
people the visual impairment is a major health problem in Australia.
The main cause of visual impairment with an advancing age is the loosening of tissue
and eye muscles which decreases the normal function of the eyes as well as ocular
movement. There is an increase of incidence of falls and fractures among the old people who
are visually impaired (Hong et al., 2014). This situation can be aggravated by the following
causes:
 Glaucoma
 Old age related ocular muscle degeneration
 Diabetic Retinopathy
 Cataracts
 Age related macular degeneration
 Uncorrected refractive errors
 Trachoma
 Corneal opacity and many more.
It is to be understood that the elderly people with visual impairment are exposed to
various types of social dependencies as well as isolation. Some of the vision impairments are
treatable and can lead to better quality of life among older people of Australia. According to
Fong et al., (2013), surgical correction in case of visual impairment can lead to long term
survival of elderly people of Australia.