September 13, 2012
Debilitating eye problems like macular degeneration have been a constant battle for senior citizens, but a new study from Northwestern Medicine shows very hopeful results. Fewer visual impairments are being reported in today’s seniors and researchers say that the decline from 1984 to 2010 was statistically significant. In fact, in 1984, 23 percent of elderly adults had difficulty reading or seeing newspaper print due to poor eyesight. By 2010, however, only 9.7 percent of elderly adults reported this vision problem—an impressive 58 percent decrease.
The findings are encouraging, as they may mean that current diagnostic and screening tools are working to detect and prevent eyesight problems. Find out more about this breakthrough study in this article from Medical News Today.