[Visual acuity and automobile driving fitness in the elderly]

Both physiological age-related degeneration of the organ of sight and its adnexa, and pathological age-related diseases, such as cataract, glaucoma or senile macula degeneration, impair a person's eyesight.

The consequences include a decrease in visual acuity, impairment of the visual field, diminishment of dark adaptation, twilight vision, contrast perception, and stereoscopic vision, together with a dramatic increase in sensitivity to light. All these phenomena may greatly reduce the elderly person's ability to cope with the demands made by modern traffic. Our investigations do, however, indicate that in parallel with increasing life expectancy, the physiological and pathological age-related changes in the organ of sight may be occurring later than formerly. Moreover, modern surgical techniques, for example senile cataract with implantation of an intraocular lens, may achieve optical rehabilitation.

Active participation of the elderly in road traffic, for example driving a car, is certainly possible from the point of view of the ophthalmologist. Nevertheless, the introduction of regular testing of vision from the age of 65 onwards is to be recommended.