Yusheng Jia

PhD Candidate in Health Services Research and Policy

Do You See What Eye See? Measurement, Correlates, and Functional Associations of Objective and Self-Reported Vision Impairment in Aging South Africans


Journal article


Meagan T. Farrell, Yusheng Jia, L. Berkman, Ryan G. Wagner
Journal of Aging and Health, 2021

Semantic Scholar DOI PubMed
Cite

Cite

APA   Click to copy
Farrell, M. T., Jia, Y., Berkman, L., & Wagner, R. G. (2021). Do You See What Eye See? Measurement, Correlates, and Functional Associations of Objective and Self-Reported Vision Impairment in Aging South Africans. Journal of Aging and Health.


Chicago/Turabian   Click to copy
Farrell, Meagan T., Yusheng Jia, L. Berkman, and Ryan G. Wagner. “Do You See What Eye See? Measurement, Correlates, and Functional Associations of Objective and Self-Reported Vision Impairment in Aging South Africans.” Journal of Aging and Health (2021).


MLA   Click to copy
Farrell, Meagan T., et al. “Do You See What Eye See? Measurement, Correlates, and Functional Associations of Objective and Self-Reported Vision Impairment in Aging South Africans.” Journal of Aging and Health, 2021.


BibTeX   Click to copy

@article{meagan2021a,
  title = {Do You See What Eye See? Measurement, Correlates, and Functional Associations of Objective and Self-Reported Vision Impairment in Aging South Africans},
  year = {2021},
  journal = {Journal of Aging and Health},
  author = {Farrell, Meagan T. and Jia, Yusheng and Berkman, L. and Wagner, Ryan G.}
}

Abstract

Objectives: Our study investigates measurement, correlates, and functional associations of vision impairment (VI) in an aging population in rural South Africa. Methods: 1582 participants aged 40–69 reported on near (NVI) and distance vision impairment (DVI) and completed objective vision tests. Logistic and linear regression were used to evaluate sociodemographic, health, and psychosocial correlates of VI and assess relationships between VI and cognitive and physical function. Results: VI prevalence was considerably higher according to objective testing (56%) versus self-reports (18%). Older adults were especially likely to underreport impairment. Objective VI was associated with age, education, cardiometabolic disease, and female sex. Conversely, self-reported VI was associated with psychosocial factors. Objective NVI and both types of DVI were associated with worse visual cognition and slower gait speed, respectively. Discussion: Self-reported and objective VI measures should not be used interchangeably in this context. Our findings highlight extensive burden of untreated VI in this region.