Search Here

Only 9.7 percent of American 65 years or older have difficulty reading or seeing newspaper print because of poor eyesight. That's down 58 percent compared to 1984.

A new study done by researchers at Northwestern Medicine has concluded that "today's senior citizens are reporting fewer visual impairment problems than their counterparts from a generation ago."

Angelo Tanna is the vice chairman of ophthalmology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and an attending physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. 

"The findings are exciting, because they suggest that currently used diagnostic and screening tools and therapeutic interventions for various ophthalmic diseases are helping to prolong the vision of elderly Americans," Tanna said. 

Researchers collected data from 1984 through 2010 and found that "there was a substantial decline in eyesight problems that limited elderly Americans from taking part in daily activities, such as bathing, dressing or getting around inside or outside of the home."

The three likely reasons for the decline?

• Improved techniques and outcomes for cataract surgery
• Less smoking, resulting in a drop in the prevalence of macular degeneration
• Treatments for diabetic eye diseases are more readily available and improved, despite the fact that the prevalence of diabetes has increased

The study used self-reported data collected from 1984 to 2010 through two major population-based surveys, the National Health Interview Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation. The study was published in the journal Ophthalmology.