A current examine discovered that one in 5 dementia instances may very well be tied to imaginative and prescient impairment, suggesting that higher eye well being might assist decrease an older grownup’s threat of dementia.
In accordance with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being, 19% of dementia instances have been tied to a minimum of one impairment of imaginative and prescient, with an elevated threat amongst examine contributors between the ages of 71 and 79.
Researchers collected knowledge from over 2,700 older adults within the U.S. over the age of 65 in 2021, with contributors present process cognitive exams and three visible impairment checks measuring the flexibility to view shut objects, long-range objects, and the flexibility to view contrasted outlines of smaller objects.
“The whole contribution of late-life imaginative and prescient impairment to dementia could also be substantial and warrants additional examination to tell dementia prevention methods,” the examine discovered.
The speed of dementia and eye impairment was additionally larger amongst non-Hispanic white older adults, however the examine famous that the findings can’t definitively show a “cause-and-effect relationship” between dementia and eye impairment, though “the whole contribution of late-life imaginative and prescient impairment to dementia could also be substantial.”
Roughly 5% of dementia instances have been tied to imaginative and prescient impairment for distance checks, 10% for close-range object checks, and 15% within the distinction checks.
One other examine, revealed in January, discovered that 94% of older adults residing with a uncommon imaginative and prescient situation generally known as posterior cortical atrophy or Benson’s syndrome additionally confirmed indicators of Alzheimer’s illness, in response to College of California-San Francisco researchers. In August of final yr, a examine performed by the College of Michigan discovered that dementia was extra widespread in older adults with imaginative and prescient points.
