The assessment of cognition in visually impaired older adults

Killen, Alison; Firbank, Michael J; Collerton, Daniel; Clarke, Michael; Jefferis, Joanna Mary; Taylor, John-Paul; McKeith, Ian G; Mosimann, Urs Peter (2013). The assessment of cognition in visually impaired older adults. Age and ageing, 42(1), pp. 98-102. Oxford: Oxford University Press 10.1093/ageing/afs157

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Background: visual and cognitive impairments are common in later life. Yet there are very few cognitive screening tests for the visually impaired. Objective: to screen for cognitive impairment in the visually impaired. Methods: case-control study including 150 elderly participants with visual impairment (n = 74) and a control group without visual impairment (n = 76) using vision-independent cognitive tests and cognitive screening tests (MMSE and clock drawing tests (CDT)) which are in part vision dependent. Results: the scoring of the two groups did not differ in the vision-independent cognitive tests. Visually impaired patients performed poorer than controls in the vision-dependent items of the MMSE (T = 7.3; df: 148; P < 0.001) and in CDT (T = 3.1; df: 145; P = 0.003). No group difference was found when vision-independent items were added to MMSE and CDT. The test score gain by the use of vision-independent items correlated with the severity of visual impairment (P < 0.002). Conclusion: visually impaired patients benefit from cognitive tests, which do not rely on vision. The more visually impaired the greater the benefit.

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