Visual impairment and health-related quality of life among elderly adults with age-related eye diseases.

Objective: To examine the association between age-related eye disease (ARED), visual impairment, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Methods: We used data from the 2006 and 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to examine self-reported visual impairment and two HRQOL domains-physical impairment (including poor general health, physical unhealthy days, activity-limitation days, and disability) and mental distress (including mental unhealthy days, life dissatisfaction, major depression, lifetime depression, and anxiety) for people aged 65 years or older, by ARED status.

Results: People with any ARED were more likely than those without to report visual impairment as well as physical impairment and mental distress. The prevalence of visual impairment (P trend <0.001) and physical impairment (P trend <0.001) increased with increasing number of eye diseases after controlling for all covariates. There was no significant linear trend, however, in mental distress among people with one or more eye diseases.

Conclusions: ARED was found to be associated with visual impairment and poorer HRQOL. Increasing numbers of AREDs were associated with increased levels of visual impairment and physical impairment, but were not associated with levels of mental distress.