Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Aging Ment Health. 2021 May;25(5):946-953. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2020.1725806. Epub 2020 Feb 13.
Little is known about the specific association of vision loss and psychosocial outcome measures in contrast to other health limitations. The aim of this study was to identify whether vision problems are associated with psychosocial outcomes among middle-aged and older adults and to compare it with the association between other chronic health conditions and psychosocial factors. Cross-sectional data came from wave 5 (2014) of the German Ageing Survey which is a representative sample of non-institutionalized individuals ≥ 40 years in Germany. Psychosocial outcomes (life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, depressive symptoms, optimism, general self-esteem, and social isolation) were assessed using well-established and widely used scales. Self-rated trouble reading the newspaper due to vision problems and self-rated difficulties recognizing known people on the street due to vision problems were used as independent variables of interest. Regressions showed that both 'vision problems: reading the newspaper' and 'vision problems: difficulties recognizing people' are consistently associated with worse psychosocial outcomes (decreased life satisfaction, decreased positive affect, increased negative affect, increased depressive symptoms, decreased optimism, decreased self-esteem and increased social isolation). In contrast, none of the physical illnesses was consistently associated with all psychosocial outcome measures. Adjusting for various potential confounders and in contrast to various chronic diseases, our findings emphasize an association between vision problems and worse psychosocial outcomes in middle-aged and older adults. Future longitudinal studies are needed to validate our findings.
与其他健康限制相比，人们对视力丧失与心理社会结果指标之间的特定关联知之甚少。本研究的目的是确定视力问题是否与中年和老年人的心理社会结果相关，并将其与其他慢性健康状况和心理社会因素之间的关联进行比较。横断面数据来自德国老龄化研究的第 5 波（2014 年），这是德国非机构化≥40 岁个体的代表性样本。使用经过充分验证和广泛使用的量表评估心理社会结果（生活满意度、积极情绪、消极情绪、抑郁症状、乐观、一般自尊心和社会隔离）。自评因视力问题而难以阅读报纸以及自评因视力问题而难以在街上认出熟人，作为关注的自变量。回归显示，“视力问题：阅读报纸”和“视力问题：难以认出熟人”均与较差的心理社会结果相关（生活满意度降低、积极情绪降低、消极情绪增加、抑郁症状增加、乐观度降低、自尊心降低和社会隔离增加）。相比之下，没有一种身体疾病与所有心理社会结果指标都始终相关。在调整了各种潜在混杂因素后，与各种慢性疾病相反，我们的研究结果强调了视力问题与中年和老年人较差的心理社会结果之间的关联。需要未来的纵向研究来验证我们的发现。
