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Prevalence of vision loss among hospital in‐patients; a risk factor for falls?
Author(s) -
Leat Susan J.,
Zecevic Aleksandra A.,
Keeling Alexis,
Hileeto Denise,
Labreche Tammy,
Brymer Christopher
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
ophthalmic and physiological optics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.147
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1475-1313
pISSN - 0275-5408
DOI - 10.1111/opo.12428
Subject(s) - medicine , visual acuity , visual impairment , vision disorder , stereoscopic acuity , risk factor , neglect , vision test , optometry , injury prevention , poison control , low vision , emergency medicine , ophthalmology , psychiatry , refractive error
Abstract Purpose Despite poor vision being a risk factor for falls, current hospital policies and practices often do not include a vision assessment at patient admission or in the hospital's incident reporting system when a fall occurs. Our purpose was to document the prevalence of vision loss in hospital general medicine units to increase awareness of poor vision as a potential risk factor for falls that occur within the hospital, and inform future preventative practice. Methods This cross‐sectional study took place in medicine units of an acute care hospital. Participants were adult in‐patients. Visual acuity ( VA ), contrast sensitivity and stereoacuity were measured, and patients were screened for field loss, extinction and neglect. Results 115 participants took part (average age 67 ± 17, 48% female). Overall, 89% had a visual impairment defined as being outside the age‐norms for one or more vision measure, 62% had low vision, and 36% had vision loss equivalent to legal blindness [ VA equal to or poorer than 1.0 log MAR (6/60, 20/200) or ≥10x below age‐norms]. There was a considerable discrepancy between the prevalence of low vision and the percentage of patients who reported an ocular diagnosis that would result in visual loss (30%). Ten patients fell during the study period, and of these 100% had visual impairment, 90% had low vision and 60% had vision loss equivalent to legal blindness, which compares to 58%, 22% and 9% for non‐fallers. Similar high prevalences were found in those whose reason for admission to the hospital was a fall (92%, 63% and 33% respectively). Conclusions Vision loss has a high prevalence among patients in hospital medicine units, and is higher still among those who fall. Since vision loss may be a contributing factor to falls that occur in hospitals, implementing an assessment of vision at hospital admission would be useful to alert staff to those patients who are at risk for falls due to poor vision, so that preventative measures can be applied.