Visual impairment and falls among older adults and elderly: evidence from longitudinal study of ageing in India

The present study determines the prevalence and correlates of falls, multiple falls, and injuries, focusing on visual impairment among the older adult and elderly population in India. Additionally, owing to the higher prevalence of falls and visual impairment among women, a sex-stratified analysis h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC public health 2022-12, Vol.22 (1), p.2324-2324, Article 2324
Main Authors: Singh, Rajeev Ranjan, Maurya, Priya
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidental Falls
Age
Aged
Aging
Alzheimer's disease
Bivariate analysis
Blindness
Blindness - epidemiology
Falls
Falls (Accidents)
Female
Females
Gender
Geriatrics
Health aspects
Humans
Impairment
India
India - epidemiology
Injuries
Injury
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Males
Older adults
Older people
Osteoporosis
Population
Prevalence
Public health
Risk Factors
Risk reduction
Rural areas
Sex differences
Statistics
Urban areas
Vision
Vision, Low - epidemiology
Visual acuity
Visual impairment
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Summary:The present study determines the prevalence and correlates of falls, multiple falls, and injuries, focusing on visual impairment among the older adult and elderly population in India. Additionally, owing to the higher prevalence of falls and visual impairment among women, a sex-stratified analysis has also been done in the present study. The study utilized the data from the first wave of the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI wave-1), conducted during 2017-2018. Bivariate with chi-square and multivariate analyses were performed to fulfill the objective. Around 34% of population had low vision (male:30% and female: 38%), while blindness prevalence was 1.63% (males: 1.88% and females: 1.41%). The fall was higher among females and increased across the gender with increasing visual impairment and blindness levels. The unadjusted odds of falls were 16% higher among individuals with low vision and 40% higher among individuals with blindness than with normal vision, and comparatively higher odds among females than males. In summary, falls and visual impairment is public health challenge and needs to be addressed. Visual impairment is preventable in most cases, so it may be a modifiable target for reducing the risk of falls.
ISSN:1471-2458
1471-2458
DOI:10.1186/s12889-022-14697-2