Visual Acuity, Visual Disabilities and Falling in the Elderly

Bibliographic Data

ID12798105
AuthorsCynthia L Arfken (0000-0002-8167-6955, Washington University School of Medicine, corresponding author), Helen W Lach (0000-0003-0597-5766, Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri), Sarah McGee (0009-0003-3303-1006, Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri), Sarah M McGee (0000-0002-8370-7241, Jewish Hospital), Stanley J Birge (Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri), J Philip Miller (0000-0003-4568-6846, Washington University School of Medicine)
Year1994
Volume6
Issue1
Pages38-50
Publication date1994-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Aging and Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1552-6887 • E-ISSN: 0898-2643
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/089826439400600103
OpenAlexW2120666515
LanguageEN
References cited24

Poor vision has been suggested as a risk factor for falling in the elderly. We analyzed the findings from a cohort of community-dwelling elderly (N = 875) to determine the relative risks for impaired visual acuity and various visual disabilities with falling, recurrent falling, and serious injurious falls. The prevalences of impaired visual acuity and four visual disabilities were low. None of the vision variables examined predicted time to first serious injurious fall after controlling for balance, cognition, age, and gender. However, bumping into objects predicted falling and recurrent falling. The lack of associations between visual disabilities and falling suggests that poor vision, as measured here, plays a limited role in predicting falling in relatively well community-dwelling elderly

Balance (ability · Falling (accident · Fear of falling · Injury prevention · Medical emergency · Physical medicine and rehabilitation · Poison control · Psychiatry · Visual acuity · Visual impairment · Balance, Gait, and Falls Prevention · Injury Epidemiology and Prevention · Medicine · Psychology · Traffic and Road Safety · Gerontology · Ophthalmology

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