Impact of stereopsis on quality of life.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the impact of stereopsis on vision-related quality of life and general health status of the elderly.


METHODS
A quota of 200 subjects aged 65 years or older and had their households registered in Guando district was recruited for a general physical examination including ophthalmic evaluation. A structured questionnaire consisting of seven vision-specific items as well as 36-item short-form survey of the Medical Outcomes Study (SF-36) was administered. Stereoscopic level was divided into three groups: no stereopsis, gross stereopsis, and fine stereopsis. Fisher's exact test was used to detect any difference in subjective visual functioning and Mann-Whitney U test was used for analyses of SF-36 scores.


RESULTS
A total of 187 volunteers were recruited and 150 were analysed for stereoscopic levels. There was no significant difference in vision-specific difficulty among the three stereoscopic groups. For SF-36, having no stereopsis scored significantly less than having gross (P=0.005) and fine (P<0.0001) stereopsis in the vitality/energy dimension. General health perception dimension fared significantly lower in the group with no stereopsis compared to the fine stereoscopic group (P=0.01). In multivariate analysis, having fine stereopsis scored significantly higher in the energy/vitality dimension than having no stereopsis (P=0.02). On the other hand, visual impairment imposed significant adverse effect on five vision-specific items and had no significant relationship with the eight dimensions of SF-36.


CONCLUSIONS
Defective stereopsis in the elderly imposes no significant adverse effect on vision-related quality of life. However, subjects may feel more exhausted in accomplishing their usual tasks.
Department of Ophthalmology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
T-M
TM
Kuang
W-M
WM
Hsu
C-K
CK
Chou
S-Y
SY
Tsai
P
P
Chou
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003867:Depth Perception; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014792:Visual Acuity; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*