Abstract

People over the age of 65 are the fastest growing segment of the population with those over 85 years increasing even faster. Many previous studies have reported on changes in multiple vision functions with age (e.g. Häkkinen, 1984, Bergman et al. 1992, Rubin et al., 1995). In most previous studies, the oldest-old are often not well-represented. We are currently in the process of assessing vision function on a large battery of tests in a community dwelling older population living in Marin County, California. The randomly selected population which has been followed longitudinally for other epidemiological studies consists of over 2000 people over the age of 55 year (Reed et al. 1995). The oldest-old are over-represented with 500 participants over the age of 85 in the initial sample. Over 800 participants of the 2000 have participated in the vision study conducted in cooperation with the Buck Center for Research in Aging. The battery includes measure of spatial vision, temporal vision, reading performance, glare sensitivity, glare recovery, color vision, binocular vision, motion sensitivity, and central and peripheral visual fields including attentional visual fields. A subset of vision test results are presented here from a subset of the total sample. Only people 75 years and over are included. A total of 372 individuals with an average age of 83 years (s.d. 5.8) have completed the test battery to date. Of these, 121 are 85 years of age or older.

© 1996 Optical Society of America