Study finds vision impairments can raise risk of dementia in older persons

A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 research comprising 76,373 individuals found that older persons with untreated vision disorders may be at greater risk of dementia.

The study’s findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Aging and Mental Health, underscore the need for more research into the influence of addressing vision impairments in older persons, such as using glasses or cataract surgery, on cognitive difficulties and dementia.”

This is one of the first studies to examine the relationship between vision difficulties and cognitive results in older persons using a complete review of all relevant population-based research in English.

“Our findings add to the growing body of data that deteriorating eyesight is a risk factor for dementia,” said main author Associate Professor Beibei Xu of Peking University’s Medical Informatics Center. “Although the causes behind this are unknown, it shows that detecting and treating eye disorders may be advantageous – both in terms of improving a person’s quality of life and perhaps slowing or stopping memory loss.”

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Nearly one million individuals in the UK are thought to have dementia, and this figure is expected to rise over the next several decades as the population ages. It is expected that by 2050, this population would have risen to 1.6 million.

The expense of dementia is anticipated to nearly double over the same time period, from GBP 25 billion now to GBP 47 billion in 2050. People’s life are being destroyed as a result of the condition. As their sickness develops, individuals will have more memory loss and personality and behavioural changes. They will eventually become fully reliant on others for their care.

The researchers selected 16 studies with a total of 76,373 individuals, including five cross-sectional studies and 11 longitudinal studies published before April 2020. The authors studied the connection between visual impairment and cognitive results in older persons using data from these trials. They discovered:

People who had a vision problem were more likely to develop cognitive impairment and dementia, regardless of whether their vision impairment was self-reported or evaluated objectively.

People who had a vision difficulty had a 137% higher chance of having a cognitive impairment than those who did not.

People who had a vision problem at the start had a 41% higher chance of acquiring cognitive impairment and a 44% higher risk of having dementia than those who did not.

“Finding techniques to prevent or postpone the onset of dementia might help decrease its terrible impact on the lives of afflicted persons and their families, particularly given the disease’s increasing burden.” “The first crucial step in creating effective therapies to attain this aim is identifying modifiable risk variables,” explains Beibei Xu.