A new study of senior Australians has revealed that within the first year of entering residential aged care less than half (46%) with an eye condition accessed an eye health service.
Yet, 70% used at least one ophthalmic medication.
The study, published in the Translational Vision Science and Technology journal in December, evaluated the prevalence of eye conditions, use of eye health care services, and ophthalmic medications after entering residential aged care in Australia.
It involved a cross-sectional study using data from the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) on 409,186 individual aged care residents aged 65 years or older who entered residential aged care between 2008 and 2015.
The study revealed optometric services were the most used eye healthcare services (42%) and anti-infective eye drops were the most commonly dispensed medications (37%).
Of the 409,186 people studied, 44% had an eye condition, 33% had chronic eye conditions (glaucoma and cataract were most common at 14% and 8% respectively) and 20% had an acute eye condition.
ROSA senior research fellow and the study’s lead researcher Dr Jyoti Khadka told Australian Ageing Agenda the findings were concerning because age predisposes Australians to having more eye conditions, but they are not accessing proper eye health services.
“If you have proper eye health services, eye conditions can be assessed because simple kinds of treatments and corrections related to eye rehabilitation can help significantly. If you leave them like that, these eye conditions may lead to blindness,” Khadka said.
He said there are also negative impacts associated with blindness, such as falls and fractures, which can lead to hospital admissions.
Prevalence of any eye condition, acute eye conditions, and blindness decreased over the study period while the prevalence of glaucoma and cataract remained stable or slightly increased.
The study’s authors concluded the burden of eye diseases remained high between 2008 and 2015, whereas the use of eye health care services was disproportionately low.
“This study provides evidence of a significant need for eye healthcare services for older people with an eye disease in residential aged care facilities,” they wrote.
The study abstract can be accessed here.
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