Participation in daily activities and social roles of older adults with visual impairment.
OBJECTIVE
(1) to document participation in daily activities and social roles of older adults seeking services for visual impairment (VI) and compare it with that of the older population without VI or other disabilities, and (2) to explore correlates of their participation.


METHODS
The 64 participants (46 women) had an average age of 79.3 years (SD = 5.9 years) and presented various types of VI. Participants were interviewed at home to collect information regarding their visual function (National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25), sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, including depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale), and participation (Assessment of Life Habits/LIFE-H). Each participant was matched with another person without disabilities randomly recruited from the community. Results for the two populations on the Life-H participation domains were compared using t-tests. In the group with VI, general information (independent variables) was examined in relation to participation main scores (dependent variables), followed by multiple linear regression analyses.


RESULTS
Participation in daily activities and social roles of participants with VI (mean +/- SD (/9) = 6.8 +/- 1.0 and 5.6 +/- 1.6, respectively) was significantly lower than that of participants without VI (8.1 +/- 0.4 and 8.3 +/- 0.4) (p < 0.0001). Depressive symptoms and perceived quality of distance vision were the strongest correlates and together explained more than 65% of the variance in the participation scores of the subjects with VI.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates the participation restrictions associated with VI and underlines the importance of psychological aspects in participation.
School of Rehabilitation, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. johanne.desrosiers@usherbrooke.ca
Johanne
J
Desrosiers
Marie-Chantal
MC
Wanet-Defalque
Khatoune
K
Témisjian
Jacques
J
Gresset
Marie-France
MF
Dubois
Judith
J
Renaud
Claude
C
Vincent
Jacqueline
J
Rousseau
Mathieu
M
Carignan
Olga
O
Overbury
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*