What causes poor eyesight among seniors?


The loss of eyesight is a common consequence of growing older, and it’s not just ailments such as Glaucoma and cataracts causing difficulty for seniors. One group of researchers says they may have identified the cause of another common eye-related problem: difficulty reading fine print.

As reported in U.S. News and World Report, scientists from the University of Leicester in England conducted experiments with young adults in their 20s and seniors aged 65 and above, and found that when lines of text were digitally altered, seniors had difficulty reading the words when the lines were well defined, but they were able to read the text when it was blurred.

The results, published as an article in the journal Psychology and Aging, the researchers said the results demonstrate seniors and younger people read text in different ways.

“The findings showed that the difficulty older readers often experience is likely to be related to a progressive decline in visual sensitivity, particularly for visual detail, due to optical changes and changes in neural transmission even in individuals with apparently normal vision,” according to Kevin Paterson , one of the study’s authors.

How is your eyesight? Have you found your vision has declined with age? Tell us about it in the comment section below.