Associaton of visual impairment and depression among elderly population in Tanta

ABSTRACT

Researches documented that elderly patients with heterogeneous eye diseases ended with low vision, reported high levels of depression. This work aimed at studying the association between visual impairment in the elderly and depression; also, to determine other risk factors for depression among them. Subject and methods: This study was conducted in the Ophthalmology outpatient clinic of Tanta University Hospital for Ophthalinology; for a period of two months. The study included 217 elderly aged above 60 years attending the clinic. One hundred and seventeen [117] of them were elderly cases with visual impairment [low vision] and one hundred [100] were control [with no visual impairment]. Data collected were socio-demographic, chronic morbidities, medication use, teeth problems, and limitation in activities of daily living. The study assessed depression status among the elderly according to the Geriatric depression Scale [GDSJ. The result of the study showed that [53.8%] of the cases with impaired vision were depressed compared to 20% for the control group. The frequency of depression among all participants in this study [with and without impaired vision] was 38.25%. The most significant risk factors for depression in univariate analysis were; advance in age, urban residency, co-morbidities, dependency in activities of daily living and lack of exercise. While the independent risk factors [according to a multiple logistic regression model] were; having low vision, being older than 70 years, living in urban community. There was an association between visual impairment and depression. Visually impaired persons had high prevalence of depression than control group. Advance in age, impaired vision, co-morbidities, dependency in daily life activities, urban residency and lack of exercise were associated risk for depression The study recommended the use of specific rehabilitation programs for elderly with visual impairment to avoid depression, including psychotherapy and the use of recent low vision aids that may help the poor sighted elderly to overcome and improve their vision. Conducting large scale study [community based] among elders