Causes of Blindness and Visual Impairment Among Seniors
We provide this free health resource to visitors of the Community Room of SeniorSSuperStoreS in an effort to keep baby boomers, seniors and the elderly informed of matters that can affect their lifestyle.
Blindness and visual impairment result from a variety of causes, including traumatic eye injuries, pathogenic infections, and complications associated with progressive illness. Many people who have experienced vision loss initially feel anger, then grief, and finally depression. An individual who permanently loses use of any sense usually progresses through the same emotional stages as a person who has suffered the loss of a loved one. Lengthy depressions are not uncommon.
Many causes of blindness are preventable through routine eye exams and early intervention. Four conditions - - macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma - - are responsible for a significant portion of blindness and vision loss, especially among senior citizens and the elderly. These conditions are often preventable or treatable, if diagnosed in their early stages.
Macular degeneration is a degenerative disease commonly associated with the aging process that affects the macula, a small spot in the central area of the retina located at the back of the eye. The macula is responsible for sight in the center of the field of vision and is the most sensitive part of the retina. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of legal blindness in people over age 50. Visual characteristics of the disease include the inability to see straight lines in the field of vision. Telephone poles, the sides of buildings and streetlight posts appear wavy; type in books, magazines, and newspapers appears blurry; and dark or empty spaces may block the center of the field of vision.
A cataract is a clouding of the eye’s lens. The role of the lens is to help focus images onto the retina at the back of the eye, which then transmit the images to the brain. Clouding blocks or changes the passage of light needed for vision. If images cannot be transmitted through an ordinarily transparent lens, images received in the brain may become blurred. Cataracts are a leading cause of blindness among adults in the United States and account for nearly half of all cases of blindness worldwide.
Although most prevalent in adults, cataracts can occur in young people and are sometimes even found in a baby’s eyes at birth. As medical advances have succeeded in lengthening the human life span, more and more Americans will be entering the age group associated with the development of cataracts. It has been shown that if we live long enough, most of us will develop a cataract.
The symptoms of cataracts include
Diabetic retinopathy is an eye disease in which the small blood vessels in the retina become weak and break down or become blocked. The longer a person has diabetes, the greater the risk of developing this condition. In fact, diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy is often the first clue that an individual has developed diabetes.
More than 40 percent of those who have had diabetes for 15 or more years have some blood vessel damage in the retina. The most serious result of the disease is severe vision loss or blindness. However, the disease is not limited to long-term diabetics; it can appear within the first year or two after the onset of the disease. Early treatment of diabetic retinopathy often improves the potential for saving sight.
Glaucoma is a condition in which the optic nerve is damaged by increased pressure within the eye. This pressure causes damage that progressively worsens, leading initially to the loss of peripheral vision, then the diminution of central vision, and eventually blindness. An estimated 15 million Americans have glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness - 150,000 new cases per year in the United States. The disease may not produce any noticeable symptoms; thus, individuals may not even be aware they have it. African Americans are four to five times more likely than Caucasians to develop glaucoma. Other risk factors include genetics (being related to someone with glaucoma), age (over 50 if Caucasian and over 35 if African American), nearsightedness, and diabetes. Treatments are available to reduce the risk of glaucoma resulting in blindness.
Changes in the tissue of the eye make individuals more susceptible to diseases of the eye as they age. As a result, vision loss is often considered to be a normal function of the aging process - - a misperception that is reinforced by the prevalence of vision problems in the elderly. Studies have shown that these problems are not unique to the aged and are usually treatable. Common problems encountered as a result of the aging of eye tissues include:
The leading causes of blindness will have a greater impact in the coming years as baby boomers reach retirement age. The expected dramatic increase in age-related eye disease threatens to diminish the quality of life for millions. In fact, by the year 2030, twice as many people will be blind as there are today, macular degeneration will continue to be the leading cause of blindness, and there will be a near doubling of the total cases of glaucoma.
For a thorough discussion of how blindness and visual impairments pose unique fire safety challenges for seniors, visit Fire Safety For The Visually Impaired Senior in the Safety Resources category of our Community Room.