A comparative study of visual perception in the elderly residing in Sabzevar

The world''s elderly population is increasing and fall is an outcome of ageing. Visual disturbance is one of the internal risk factors of falling. The aim of this study was to compare of the visual perception as a subgroup of visual disturbance in the City of Sabzevar، Iran.

In the present case-control study، based on convenience sampling method، 89 older adults (46 faller and 43 non-faller) were enrolled. All participants were assessed as follow: dementia (Hachinski ischemia score)، fall (fear of fall questionnaire) and visual perception (Developmental test of visual perception adolescence and Adult). Data were analyzed in SPSS software version 17. 0 using Mann-Whitney U test.

A significant difference was observed between general visual perception (p<0. 001)، Motor-Reduced visual perception (p<0. 001) and Visual-Motor integration (p<0. 001) skills of faller and non-faller older adults.

Because the faller older adults had less visual perception ability than non-faller counterparts، it might be assumed that visual perception disorder is one of the causes of fall.