Vision loss now recognized as modifiable risk factor for dementia
October 21, 2024
Contact: Jon Meerdink ([email protected])
ANN ARBOR — An influential medical research report now recognizes vision impairment as a modifiable risk factor for dementia, a significant development in the ongoing work of both vision health and cognitive health professionals.
The 2024 Lancet Commission report included vision impairment among its modifiable life course risk factors for dementia, grouping it with other factors that can be addressed either medically or socially.
“We were very pleased to see in the Lancet Commission’s 2024 update that vision loss was included among the 14 modifiable life course risk factors that they cite,” said Dr. Josh Ehrlich, an ophthalmologist and population health researcher at the Institute for Social Research’s Survey Research Center and the Medical School’s Department of Opthamology & Visual Sciences.
“When they calculate how many cases of dementia might be attributable to a given risk factor, vision loss was right up there with really well-established risk factors like obesity, smoking, diabetes, and hypertension with an identical attributable risk fraction,” he said.
Ehrlich responded to the news in a piece titled “Untreated Vision Loss as a Modifiable Dementia Risk Factor,” published in JAMA Ophthalmology in September. According to Ehrlich, evidence has been building for some time of a strong link between vision loss and cognitive decline. The Commission’s decision to formally include vision loss now creates an opportunity to highlight the highly modifiable nature of vision loss.
“Worldwide, 75 percent of vision loss is due to uncorrected refractive error (the unmet need for glasses) and cataract, which is readily treatable with a safe and cost-effective surgery. We’re talking about something that’s readily modifiable in ways that not all risk factors are.”
Longitudinal observational studies indicate that vision loss often precedes cognitive decline, strengthening the need for timely responses to vision issues, even for those who may not have dementia yet. But according to Ehrlich, adding vision impairment to the list of modifiable risk factors for dementia could help improve overall population health.
“There aren’t yet great treatments for dementia, and there aren’t even great prevention strategies. But if we can identify those risk factors that we might be able to act upon, to slice away the number of people who are likely to be affected even a little bit, that’s a benefit at the population level and at the individual level.”
Ehrlich’s full response, “Untreated Vision Loss as a Modifiable Dementia Risk Factor,” is available online via JAMA Ophthalmology.