Detection of visual impairment in gerontological centres through educational innovation projects

The leading cause of visual impairment (VI) worldwide is uncorrected refractive errors (URE). The prevalence of VI increases with age, but older adults often do not seek optometric care because they assume that, in old age, it is normal to "not see well". Between 2017–2023, several service-learning projects were developed in the city of Santiago de Compostela in which a visual care service was offered to users of gerontological centres and focused on the detection of avoidable vision loss. This study analyses the results of this service. Methodology: visual care was carried out in the collaborating centres themselves. The optometric protocol applied included: measurement of visual acuity (VA) with habitual correction and with pinhole, Hirschberg test, assessment of ocular motility, examination of pupillary size and response and biomicroscopy. Binocular VI was defined as binocular VA with standard correction < 0.5 (decimal scale). Results: a total of 242 students and 4 entities participated in the service-learning projects. 215 subjects (mean age = 80.3 ± 10 years, females = 63.7 %) completed all visual screening tests. 8.4 % had binocular VI and 41.4 % binocular VA < 0.5 in near vision. The frequency of URE reached 40.3 %. 22.2 % of the subjects with binocular VI live with URE in at least one eye. More than 40 % of the examined users have eye hygiene problems. Conclusion: the visual care service provided shows the need for visual care in a group where a significant percentage of cases of visual deficit can be solved with a simple optical correction.