Eyeglasses Upgrade Helps Elderly Battle Depression

Eyeglasses Upgrade Helps Elderly Battle Depression
MONDAY, Nov. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Correcting nursing home residents'poor vision not only boosts quality of life, it may lower risks fordepression, U.S. researchers report.
A team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham studied 78 nursinghome residents, 55 and older, who received eyeglasses one week afterhaving an eye exam and 64 residents who received eyeglasses two monthsafter an eye check-up.
The residents' vision-related quality-of-life and depressive symptomswere assessed at the start of the study and again two months later.
At the start of the study, both groups had similar medical/demographiccharacteristics and similar visual acuity and refractive error. After twomonths, those who received eyeglasses at the start of the study showedimprovement in distance and near visual acuity, while those who didn'treceive eyeglasses showed no change in visual acuity.
Also at two months, residents who received eyeglasses had higher scoresfor general vision, reading, activities, hobbies, social interaction, andfewer depressive symptoms, said the study, which was published in theNovember issue of the journal Archives of Ophthalmology.
"This study implies that there are significant, short-termquality-of-life and psychological benefits to providing the most basic ofeye care services -- namely, spectacle correction -- to older adultsresiding in nursing homes," the researchers concluded.
"These findings underscore the need for a systematic evaluation of thefactors underlying the pervasive unavailability of eye care to nursinghome residents in the United States so that steps can be taken to improvedelivery and eye care utilization."