Visual impairment takes on a setback to successful aging: evidence from six international longitudinal studies

The global population is undergoing rapid aging, making the promotion of successful aging a pressing public health priority. However, large-scale, longitudinal evidence examining the strength and consistency of the association between visual impairment and successful aging across diverse populations remains limited.

The study displays and analyses the data extracted from six longitudinal cohorts, namely the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLOSA), the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), and the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Vision impairment was assessed via self-report, and successful aging was operationalized as a composite score, both using harmonized measures across cohorts. The following are the analyses sections: generalized estimating equations (GEE), random-effects meta-analysis, and Cox regression.

The primary analysis included 121,282 participants contributing 277,129 observations across 25 countries/regions. A significant link was identified between vision impairment and a lower likelihood of successful aging. Additionally, the pooled odds ratio was 0.56 (95% CI: 0.49-0.63) after GEE and meta-analysis.

Our findings highlight the negative impact of vision impairment on successful aging and suggest that sustaining vision fitness benefits aging promotion for middle-aged individuals and seniors.