LOS ANGELES: Older adults living in subsidized housing facilities have higher rates of vision impairment than their peers, according to a new study.
The findings were based on vision screenings for 238 residents of 14 federally subsidized senior housing facilities. Forty percent of those surveyed failed distance vision screenings, and 58 percent failed near vision screenings, considerably higher than the rate of visual impairment in the general older adult population, which is typically between 10 and 20 percent.
This study is among the first to characterize vision impairment in this group of seniors. The high rate of vision impairment observed suggests an increased need for visual health monitoring in this population of socioeconomically disadvantaged older adults…