Impact of Visual Impairment on the Wellbeing and Functional Disability of Patients with Glaucoma in India

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the impact of glaucoma-associated vision loss on quality of life and social functioning in Indians. Methods: A cross-sectional study with prospective enrollment was conducted. Participants were divided as: mild, moderate, and severe. Severity of glaucoma was stratified by the degree of binocular visual field loss in accordance with the Nelson Glaucoma Severity Scale (NGSS). The Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 (GQL-15) and a self-developed social function scale (SFS) were utilized to assess patients' wellbeing. Results: A total of 260 patients (mean ± SD age = 58.1 ± 12.01 years; 106 females) participated in the study. Univariate analyses revealed a significant relationship between final quality of life score and number of anti-glaucoma medications (P = 0.01), previous surgeries (P = 0.00), patients age (P = 0.00), patients education level (P = 0.02), and severity of glaucoma (P = 0.00). Previous surgeries (P = 0.04) and severity of glaucoma (P = 0.00) were significant predictors of GQL-15 summary score. With increasing glaucoma severity, patients noted greater difficulty with peripheral vision, glare and dark adaptation, and outdoor tasks (P < 0.0001). Severe glaucoma also impacted patients' functional performance—a significant decline was observed in sense of personal (P < 0.0001) and social wellbeing (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Patients with advanced glaucoma report significant decline in functioning, their ability to interact in community, take care of self, and do leisure activities. Glaucoma imposes greater social burden on the elderly by impacting their sense of personal safety. Targeted visual and social rehabilitative programs are necessary to improve their wellbeing and independent functioning.

Association of objective visual impairment with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among adults aged ≥50 years in low/middle-income countries

“…We focused on unemployment, cognition, anxiety, perceived stress, sleep/energy, mobility, loneliness, social participation, disability, and poor self-related health based on the possibility that they can be the consequence of visual impairment, while they can also lead to suicidal thoughts and behavior [35][36][37][38]. Unemployment referred to not being engaged in paid work ≥2 days in the last 7 days.…”

“…One other potential but under-studied risk factor in older adults is that of visual impairment. It is possible for visual impairment to lead to higher risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior via factors such as unemployment, cognitive problems, anxiety, stress, sleep problems, mobility limitations, loneliness, lack of social participation, disability, and poor self-related health [16][17][18][19]. However, there are only a few studies on visual impairment and suicidal thoughts or behavior among older people.…”

A avaliação terapêutica ocupacional (ATO) para adolescentes e adultos com deficiência visual / Occupational Therapy Assessment (ATO) for adolescents and adults with visual impairment

“…Em sua grande maioria, a rede de suporte é composta por familiares e amigos. Essas pessoas desempenham papéis importantes, por exemplo, o de fornecer à pessoa com deficiência visual o acompanhamento em atividades externas e instrumentais, o auxílio, sempre que necessário, na realização de AVD, o suporte financeiro, incluindo a aquisição de tecnologia assistiva, o suporte emocional, podendo aumentar o nível de satisfação com a vida, a diminuição dos sintomas depressivos, além de facilitar a maior adesão aos serviços de saúde (Aljied et al, 2019;Dubey et al, 2019;Ginsburg & Rapp, 2017;Lynn, 1986;Mitra et al, 2017;Riazi et al, 2016; World Health Organization [WHO], 2019). Diante da importância da rede de suporte e suas atitudes para a pessoa com deficiência visual, torna-se essencial o terapeuta ocupacional conhecer quem constitui a rede e qual sua influência na realização, engajamento e participação da pessoa avaliada.…”

“…A atividade proposta pelo instrumento é de culinária (Silva, 2016). Esta atividade foi sugerida, uma vez que, em pesquisas da área, a culinária está entre as atividades consideradas mais difíceis de serem realizadas por pessoas com deficiência visual, além de ser uma atividade possível de ser realizada em ambiente padrão, seguro e no setting terapêutico ocupacional, com a possibilidade de graduar o nível de influenciadores do desempenho (Aljied et al, 2019;Dubey et al, 2019;Silva, 2016).…”

Gaze Exploration Index (GE i)-Explainable Detection Model for Glaucoma

“…V ISUAL impairment or vision loss is the decreased ability to see, which is not correctable using glasses or lenses and leads to difficulties with day-to-day activities [1]. The causes of visual impairment are refractive errors, cataract, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, etc.…”