Abstract
Alzheimers Dement. 2025 Dec;21 Suppl 6:e100295. doi: 10.1002/alz70860_100295.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Untreated vision loss has been identified as a late life modifiable risk factor of dementia. The association of vision impairment (VI) and cognitive deficit in ageing is yet to be fully understood.
METHOD: In this case-control analysis, the vision comorbidities of two dementia cohorts (UK Biobank n = 11721, All of US n = 2350) were analysed using electronic health records in 'International Classification of Disease-10' (ICD-10) format. Mann Whitney-U analysis compared how dementia patients differed to controls with regards of pre-defined blocks of VI conditions. VI diagnostic block counts and age of first diagnosis of VI were used to understand prevalence, pattern occurrences and severity of impairments.
RESULT: 'Visual disturbances and blindness' counts showed a small but notable increase in the dementia group compared to controls in UKB (r = 0.034, p <0.0001) and AoUS (r = 0.15, p <0.0001). Earlier diagnoses of 'muscles, movement, accommodation and refraction' (r = -0.16, p <0.001) and 'disorders of the lens' (r = -0.11, p <0.001) VIs were also more associated with dementia patients. Time between first VI diagnosis and dementia onset was shorter in Alzheimer's disease compared to Vascular dementia (p <0.001), but no other within-group differences were seen.
CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated a significant association between diagnosis of selected VI groups and dementia and support early management of VI conditions for its prevention.
PMID:41435311 | DOI:10.1002/alz70860_100295
UK DRI Authors
