Change in perspective
Nursing home residents with proper glasses enjoy life more and are less depressed than those with uncorrected vision problems, a study has found. Obvious? Perhaps, but nursing home residents have three to 15 times higher rates of uncorrected vision impairment than seniors living independently.
Before testing their vision, researchers, led by Cynthia Owsley, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, scored 150 nursing home residents on scales of quality of life and depression. “Some of the people had no glasses at all,” says Owsley. “Some had glasses at one time, but they got lost. And some had glasses but the wrong prescription.”
Half the residents had their vision tested and corrected immediately with proper glasses. Two months later, both groups were retested for depression and how much they enjoyed life. Then the second group had their vision tested and corrected.
The study, in the Archives of Ophthalmology, found those receiving glasses early did better on follow-up, reporting much less difficulty reading, looking at magazines, playing cards, watching TV, reading the clock on the wall, Owsley says. “They also had less psychological distress and were more socially interactive.”
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