Hospital admissions in older people with visual impairment in Britain.
BACKGROUND
We aimed to assess the risk of hospital admission associated with visual impairment in a representative sample of older people living in the community in Britain.


METHODS



METHODS
Prospective study of hospital admission in a population-based sample of community dwelling people aged 75 years and above in Britain.


METHODS
53 general practices.


METHODS
14,394 participants in the MRC Trial of Assessment and Management of Older people in the Community.


METHODS
Hospital admission.


RESULTS
Visually impaired older people had 238.7 admissions/1000 person-years compared to 169.7 admissions/1000 person-years in people with good vision: age and sex adjusted rate ratio (RR) 1.32 (95% CI 1.19 to 1.47). Adjusting for a wide range of potential explanatory factors largely eliminated this association: RR 1.06 (95% CI 0.94 to 1.20). However, adjusting for a more limited range of confounding factors, excluding those factors possibly a consequence of reduced vision, left a modest increased risk: RR 1.19 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.34).


CONCLUSIONS
The association between visual impairment and rate of hospital admission can be attributed to higher levels of co-morbidity and reduced functional ability among people with reduced vision. Visual impairment is likely to be an important contributor to reduced functional ability, but other factors may also be involved.
Evans
Jennifer R
JR
International Centre for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. jennifer.evans@lshtm.ac.uk
Smeeth
Liam
L
Fletcher
Astrid E
AE
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012306:Risk; D006113:United Kingdom; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
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