Psychosocial consequences of age-related visual impairment: Comparison with mobility-impaired older adults and long-term outcome

Indices of behavioral competence (activities of daily living [ADLs], instru mental activities of daily living ([ADLs], use of outdoor resources, leisur e activity level) as well as emotional adaptation (subjective well-being,fu ture orientation) were used to investigate the psychosocial consequences of age-related vision impairment in a threefold manner (a) comparison of visu ally impaired and unimpaired elders, (b) comparison of visually impaired an d mobility-impaired elders, and (c) longterm adaptation across 5 years. The research design used (a) 42 severely visually impaired elders. (b) 42 blin d elders, (c) 42 mobility-impaired elders, and (d) 42 unimpaired elders. Co mpared with the mobility impaired the visually impaired demonstrated lower IADL competence but no difference in emotional adaptation. The long-term ad justment of the visually impaired remained relatively stable in the behavio ral domain, although lower compared with the unimpaired elders. Emotional a daptation decreased over the 5-year longitudinal interval in the visually i mpaired and the unimpaired group, hut the decrease was generally higher in the visually impaired group. Conceptual ideas from environmental gerontolog y as wed as psychological resilience are used to interpret these results.