One in four older adults with vision problems experience recurring falls

New research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society has highlighted that falls and limiting activity because of fear of falling are more common in older adults who are visually impaired.
 
To investigate the connection between vision loss and falls US researchers analysed the results of an annual survey of 11,558 adults aged 65 and over.

They found that half of people who said they had problems seeing were afraid of falling and limited their activity as a result.

More than one in four adults with vision problems had recurrent falls in the year before they were surveyed.

The authors emphasised: “These findings demonstrate the need to treat avoidable visual impairment and to develop interventions to prevent falls and fall‐related outcomes in this population.”