Patients aged between 49 and 75 with cataract and/or age-related macular degeneration had higher mortality rates over an 11-year period than those without visual impairments, according to a study published in the July issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.
Sudha Cugati from the University of Sydney and colleagues assessed 3,654 individuals aged 49 and older as part of an ongoing project entitled the Blue Mountains Eye Study.
When participants enrolled on the study between 1992 and 1994 they were assessed for overall visual impairment and after 11 years an average of 1,051 participants had died.
Rates of death were higher among those with visual impairment than among those without (54 per cent versus 34 per cent). Rates of death among those with AMD were 45.8 per cent compared to 33.7 per cent for those without the disease and the rate among those with cataract was 39.2 per cent versus 29.5 per cent.
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