Single-vision glasses can help prevent falls

Forty per cent of falls by elderly people could be prevented if they wore single-vision lenses rather than varifocals outside the home according to a new report.

The Australian study conducted by researchers from Sydney examined the effect on falls of providing single-vision glasses to multifocal spectacle wearers and was published in the British Medical Journal on May 25.

It examined 606 wearers of multifocal spectacles aged over 65 with a history of falls, half of whom were given single-vision glasses for going out and the other half were not. The single-vision wearers experienced 8 per cent fewer falls than the others and those that went outside regularly experienced 40 per cent fewer incidents.