Psychosocial correlates of mild visual loss

Studies of the psychosocial aspects of visual impairment have emphasized the effects of blindness, giving relatively little attention to the effects of mild or partial visual impairment. Consequently, we know little about when in the course of visual loss significant psychosocial dysfunction develops. To address this question, we assessed psychosocial functioning at three times over eight months in 31 adults with proliferative diabetic retinopathy and mild to moderate visual impairment in at least one eye. Examination of the correlations between visual and psychosocial measures revealed strong and significant correlations between visual acuity and adjustment (range of r = -0.45 to -0.68), between visual acuity and psychological symptoms (range of r = -0.39 to -0.50), and between visual acuity and emotion-focused coping (range of r = -0.38 to -0.53). The strength of these correlations and their occurrence in three independent measures of psychosocial functioning suggest a clinically meaningful relationship between visual and psychosocial functioning in the range of mild to moderate visual impairment. Psychosocial dysfunction related to visual impairment develops long before blindness. Further prospective research on the psychosocial aspects of partial visual impairment will clarify this relationship and may help justify early intervention with rehabilitation in the visually impaired who do not qualify for services for the blind.