Prevalence and correlates of vision impairment and its association with cognitive impairment among older adults in India: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the predictors of vision impairment in old age and how impaired vision is associated with cognitive impairment among the ageing population. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a large country-representative survey data. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This study used data from the ‘Building a Knowledge Base on Population Ageing in India’ survey, conducted in 2011. Participants included 9541 older adults aged 60 years and above. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcome variables were vision impairment and cognitive impairment. Descriptive statistics along with bivariate analysis were presented. Additionally, multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was performed to fulfil the objectives. RESULTS: A proportion of 59.1% of the respondents had vision impairment. Nearly 60% of the participants had cognitive impairment. Those who had vision impairment were 11% more likely to have cognitive impairment compared to their counterparts (OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.23). low psychological health (OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.36 to 1.77), low activities of daily living (OR: 1.80; 95% CI: 1.43 to 2.27), low instrumental activities of daily living (OR: 1.26; 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.40), poor self-rated health (OR: 1.28; 95% CI: 1.15 to 1.41) and chronic morbidity (OR: 1.27; 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.41) were found to be risk factors for cognitive impairment among older adults. CONCLUSIONS: Additional efforts in terms of advocacy, availability, affordability and accessibility especially in a country with big illiteracy issue are mandatory to increase the reach of eye-care services and reduce the prevalence of avoidable visual impairment and vision losses that lead to cognitive deficits among the older population.