Factors affecting perceived quality of life of older persons with self-reported visual disability

The purpose of this paper was to determine the extent to which factors thought to be related to quality of life (QoL) among older persons with a visual disability impact on their perceived QoL (PQol).

Analysis was conducted on responses from the second wave of a large population-based longitudinal study of those aged 57-72 years (i.e., HWR Study). The sample was split between those who identified as having difficulty seeing newsprint (n = 265) and those who did not (n = 1987). The groups were compared on 11 variables thought to affect QoL plus their response to a single-item measure of PQoL. Variables found to differ across the groups were entered into a standard multiple regression to determine the extent to which they predicted PQoL among those who had difficulty seeing.

Significant differences were found between the groups on PQoL and seven of the other variables assessed. Of those, three were found to make a significant and unique contribution to the prediction of PQoL. These were satisfaction with life, ability to get around, and number of diagnosed health conditions reported in that order. Together, they accounted for 64% of the observed variance in PQoL.