VISION IMPAIRMENT AND FUNCTIONAL DISABILITY AMONG NURSING-HOME RESIDENTS

The relationship was explored between vision impairment, defined by best corrected distance acuity, and functional dependency among nursing home residents. All data, including clinical information on visual acuity, were collected from nursing home records. Almost one-fourth of all residents were found to have at least a moderate vision impairment (20/70 or worse) even after best correction with refractive lenses. Findings from hierarchical regression analyses indicate that vision status is an independent significant predictor of activities of daily living (ADL) functional dependency even after age, gender, and comorbidity are accounted for. Implications for nursing home services and future research are discussed.