Visual impairment and unintentional injury mortality: the National Health Interview Survey 1986-1994.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the relationship between reported visual impairment and unintentional injury mortality.


METHODS
Mortality linkage study of a population-based survey.


METHODS
Mortality linkage through 1997 of 116,796 adult participants, aged 18 years and older, from the 1986 to 1994 National Health Interview Survey was analyzed with respect to reported visual impairment using Cox regression models. The average follow-up was 7.0 years, and 295 unintentional injury deaths were identified. After controlling for survey design, age, sex, and the presence and number of eye diseases, participants with severe, bilateral visual impairment were at increased risk of death relative to participants without visual impairment (hazard ratio: 7.4; 95% confidence interval: 3.0-17.8).


CONCLUSIONS
Our data provide evidence that severe, bilateral visual impairment is associated with an increased risk of unintentional mortality among adults in the United States.
Lee
David J
DJ
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida 33101, USA. dlee@med.miami.edu
Gómez-Marín
Orlando
O
Lam
Byron L
BL
Zheng
D Diane
DD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002423:Cause of Death; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000401:mortality*; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality*