Takeaway
Patients with visual impairment (VI) were more likely to develop incident dementia, with a progressively greater risk observed in those with worse visual acuity.
Why this matters
Findings suggest that VI may be a modifiable risk factor for dementia prevention, highlighting the importance of regular vision screening and rehabilitation.
Study design
The study included 117,187 dementia-free participants (age, 40-69 years) from the UK Biobank.
VI was defined using habitual distance visual acuity worse than 0.3 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution units in the better-seeing eye.
Funding: Fundamental Research Funds of the State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and others.
Key results
Of 117,187 participants, 438 (0.37%) had incident dementia.
During a median follow-up of 5.96 years, patients with VI at baseline vs those without were more likely to develop incident dementia (0.87% vs 0.36%; P<.001).
The presence of VI was independently associated with an increased risk of incident dementia (adjusted HR [aHR], 1.78; 95% CI, 1.18-2.68; P=.006).
A clear trend was seen between the severity of VI and the risk of dementia (Ptrend=.002), where the risk of dementia was greater in those with severe VI (aHR, 3.53; 95% CI, 1.31-9.49; P=.013).
Limitations
Observational design.
Study did not evaluate the association between baseline visual acuity and dementia risk.
This clinical summary originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
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Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: Pavankumar Kamat. Visual Impairment May Be a Risk Factor for Incident Dementia - Medscape - Sep 10, 2021.
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