Background: Vision is an essential sense which plays a significant role in a healthy daily routine with a high quality of life (QoL). This study intends to determine the association between visual impairment (VI) and QoL of elderly patients at King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), as well as compare the QoL in different demographic variables.
Methodology: It is a quantitative observational cross-sectional study that carried out randomly on elderly male and female patients with visual acuity (VA) of less than 6 out of 12. The 394 sample size excluded any subjects with mental illness. Demographics and quality of life data were collected through low vision quality-of-life questionnaire at KKUH from 2019 to 2020.
Results: The female to male ratio of 1:1.01 and a mean age of 67 were included. It was found that VA and QoL had an inverse relationship with age, where the VI among participants aged between 60 and 70 was 64%. Although female and male participants had almost the same percentage regarding VI, females recorded lower QoL when compared to males. However, a direct relationship between education and VI and QoL was found. Even though the QoL increased among married participants, the results showed that married people had more VI than singles. Furthermore, the leading cause was diabetes and hypertension, with a prevalence of 26.14%.
Conclusion: Patients older than 80 years, women, uneducated, unmarried, and VI were most likely to have a lower QoL. The importance of eye examinations should be laid in those where chronic diseases are associated with higher rates of visual complications and poor QoL.
Key words: Quality of life, visual acuity, vision impairment
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