P023
   
 

Impact of Un-correctable Visual Impairment on Depressive Symptoms among Older People: the Blue Mountains Eye Study.

1. Thomas Hong¹
2. Paul Mitchell¹
3. George Burlutsky¹
4. Bamini Gopinath¹
5. Jie Jin Wang1,2

¹Centre for vision research, Department of Ophthalmology and Westmead Millennium Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
²Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Purpose: To assess the impact of bilateral visual impairment on depression in older persons.

Methods: Of 3654 baseline participants of the Blue Mountains Eye Study, 1146 were re-examined after 15 years. Bilateral visual impairment (VI) was defined as best corrected visual acuity <20/40 in the better eye. Persons with incident VI at each 5-year interval (from baseline to 5, 5 to 10, and 10 to15 years, termed short-term cases), and baseline prevalent VI cases with a duration at least 5+ to 10+ years (long-term cases), were compared to persons without VI over the whole period (controls). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Mental Health Index (MHI) in the 36-Item Short-Form survey (SF-36). Total scores <60 were defined as depressive symptoms. Associations assessed were adjusted for age and co-morbidities (stroke, diabetes, arthritis and cardiovascular disease).

Results: Of 623 (54%) participants with MHI scores measured at all three follow-up visits, 51 were short-term, 23 were long-term VI cases and 62 were found to have depressive symptoms.

Depressive symptoms were found in 15.7% short-term and 4.3% long-term VI cases, compared to 9.4% of controls. No significant difference was found in the likelihood of having depressive symptoms between long-term VI cases and controls (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.05-2.9), but there was a significant difference between short-term VI cases and controls (OR 6.8, 95% CI 2.3-21.8), after adjusting for age, sex, and co-morbidities.

Conclusions: Visual impairment with a duration <5 years was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. This impact appears to diminish over time.

 
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