Prevalence and correlates of vision impairment and its association with cognitive impairment among older adults in India: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the predictors of vision impairment in old age and how impaired vision is associated with cognitive impairment among the ageing population.DesignA cross-sectional study was conducted using a large country-representative survey data.Setting and participantsThis study used data from the ‘Building a Knowledge Base on Population Ageing in India’ survey, conducted in 2011. Participants included 9541 older adults aged 60 years and above.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe outcome variables were vision impairment and cognitive impairment. Descriptive statistics along with bivariate analysis were presented. Additionally, multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was performed to fulfil the objectives.ResultsA proportion of 59.1% of the respondents had vision impairment. Nearly 60% of the participants had cognitive impairment. Those who had vision impairment were 11% more likely to have cognitive impairment compared to their counterparts (OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.23). low psychological health (OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.36 to 1.77), low activities of daily living (OR: 1.80; 95% CI: 1.43 to 2.27), low instrumental activities of daily living (OR: 1.26; 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.40), poor self-rated health (OR: 1.28; 95% CI: 1.15 to 1.41) and chronic morbidity (OR: 1.27; 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.41) were found to be risk factors for cognitive impairment among older adults.ConclusionsAdditional efforts in terms of advocacy, availability, affordability and accessibility especially in a country with big illiteracy issue are mandatory to increase the reach of eye-care services and reduce the prevalence of avoidable visual impairment and vision losses that lead to cognitive deficits among the older population.

Loneliness Among Older Indian Workers: Findings From the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India

“…Our findings align with previous research indicating higher levels of loneliness among those who are more deprived (Madani et al, 2022) and those who perceive themselves as being less well-off when compared with others (Ayalon, 2019). Our analysis also demonstrated that food security persists as an issue among older Indians who work, with proportions of those reporting food insecurity comparable to those in all over-60s (Muhammad et al, 2022b). Previous research using the LASI data has indicated that measures of food security are associated with measures of depression (Muhammad et al, 2022b; Patel et al, 2022), cognitive function (Kumar et al, 2021), and frailty (Muhammad et al, 2022a) in later life.…”

“…Our analysis also demonstrated that food security persists as an issue among older Indians who work, with proportions of those reporting food insecurity comparable to those in all over-60s (Muhammad et al, 2022b). Previous research using the LASI data has indicated that measures of food security are associated with measures of depression (Muhammad et al, 2022b; Patel et al, 2022), cognitive function (Kumar et al, 2021), and frailty (Muhammad et al, 2022a) in later life. In our analysis, we find that a lack of food choice and a lack of food availability, including weight loss due to inadequate food consumption are associated with greater feelings of loneliness among those who work.…”

“…These items are adapted from the US Household Food Security Module, with validity and reliability established in Indian settings (Sethi et al, 2017). As the scale was not included in its entirety in the LASI study, individual items were analyzed here (e.g., Muhammad et al, 2022b; Srivastava & Muhammad, 2022). A simple summed score was also calculated, where a response of yes was given a score of 1 while no was given a score of 0.…”

The prevalence and risk factors study of cognitive impairment: Analysis of the elderly population of Han nationality in Hunan province, China

“…And this association persisted among village participants, which may be due to the relative lack of medical resources and awareness, leading to an increased risk of cerebrovascular disease. A growing body of literature based on cross‐sectional and longitudinal data has shown that vision impairment is associated with cognitive decline among the older 30–32 . Changes in multiple measures of vision such as visual acuity, sensitivity, and visual processing speed have been observed among the aging population, and these changes have been associated with cognitive impairments 33,34 .…”

The determinants of depression among the urban elderly: A study based on the Seoul Aging Survey, Korea

“…The traditional factors on depression among the elderly are socio-demographic factors such as age, gender, marriage status, and level of education (Curran et al, 2020;Hubbard et al, 2021;Lotfaliany et al, 2019;Richardson et al, 2020;Wong et al, 2014), chronic diseases (Turana et al, 2021) and low-income (Anbesaw & Fekadu, 2022). Muhammad et al (2022) proved the strong relationship between food insecurity and depression among the elderly. Recent studies have begun to pay attention to digital competency variables as determinants of depressive symptoms in later life (Kuerbis et al, 2017; M. A.…”