Behavioral consequences of age-related low vision

Abstract

This review article focuses on the impact of age-related low vision on behavioral competence, including activities of daily living, mobility, and leisure pursuits. Empirical findings are used to illustrate that vision impairment leads to a significant decline in behavioral competence among the elderly. In particular, age-related low vision is shown to be a significant and unique predictor of performance on activities of daily living, stronger than hearing impairment, yet less influential than many other age-related health problems. Age-related low vision also seems to be highly detrimental to mobility and the pursuit of vision-dependent leisure activities; however, evidence also suggests that the visually impaired elderly can effectively compensate for or otherwise adapt to declines in competence domains. Integrated in this review is a brief description of instruments that have been developed to measure vision-related functional difficulty.