Jodi Southerland, assistant professor in the East Tennessee State University College of Public Health’s Department of Community and Behavioral Health, is lead author of an article in the Southern Medical Journal. The article is titled, “Factors Influencing Vision Health and Eye Care among Older Adults in Northeast Tennessee.”
Shimin Zheng, professor in the college’s Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and Kayla Dodson, alumna of the biostatistics graduate program, are co-authors. Muhammad Elahi, current MD/MPH student, and DiAnna Rowe of the Quillen College of Medicine are additional co-authors along with members of the American Foundation for the Blind, the University of New York, the Washington University School of Medicine, and the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center.
The purpose of the study was to examine the factors associated with vision impairment (VI), age-related eye disease (ARED), and frequency of eye examinations among older adults. A cross-sectional study was designed to identify barriers in vision and eye care services among adults 50 years and older in four counties in Appalachian Tennessee. Surveys were administered in March 2023.
When the survey data were analyzed, predictors such as traveling more than ten miles to an eye care provider, barriers to eye care, and a lack of exposure to eye health information emerged as significant factors. Individuals who traveled more than ten miles to an eye care provider were more than twice as likely than individuals who traveled shorter distances to have vision impairment and not maintain routine eye care. Reporting barriers to eye care doubled the odds of age-related eye disease and substantially increased the odds of reporting a three-year or longer interval since the last eye examination compared with having no barriers to eye care. Moreover, limited exposure to eye health information tripled the odds of vision impairment and not maintaining routine eye care compared with more exposure to eye health information.
This study contributes to the scarce literature on risk factors associated with vision health among older adults in Appalachia.