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Better Lighting to Reduce Falls and Fracture? A Comment on de Boer et al. (2004): Different Aspects of Visual Impairment as Risk Factors for Falls and Fractures in Older Men and Women
Author(s) -
Kooijman Aart C,
Cornelissen Frans W
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of bone and mineral research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.882
H-Index - 241
eISSN - 1523-4681
pISSN - 0884-0431
DOI - 10.1359/jbmr.050804
Subject(s) - contrast (vision) , luminance , falling (accident) , population , notice , medicine , mathematics , computer science , artificial intelligence , law , environmental health , political science
. In this study, the relationship between several visual functions andthe occurrence of falls and fractures were studied in elderly people. One of the mainresults was that (impaired) contrast sensitivity (a measure of someones ability tonotice small spatial differences in luminance) is an independent risk factor for fallingin the population of elderly people. Unfortunately, the authors hardly attempt toexplain this important finding. We believe this is an omission, because doing so maysuggest directions in which preventive measures should be sought. In particular, in the study of de Boer et al., a parameter called the integratedcontrast sensitivity (ICS; a measure for the total amount of visual informationgathered by the visual system(