A study conducted by the University of South Australia has gone against the common literature relating poor eyesight to brain decline, finding that cognitive tests can misdiagnose older people with age-related vision decline with cognitive decline by up to 25 percent.
“A mistaken score in cognitive tests could have devastating ramifications, leading to unnecessary changes to a person’s living, working, financial or social circumstances,” said Anne Macnamara, the lead author of the study.
The study primarily focussed on the possibility that Australians affected by age-related macular degeneration (AMD) were being misdiagnosed by cognitive tests.
AMD is a common age-related condition that leads to vision loss in older people; the condition can severely impact a person’s ability to read, drive, cook and even recognise faces. Additionally, visual impairments currently are estimated to affect 200 million people over the age of 50 worldwide, with the figure expected to increase along with an aging population.
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