A Clinically Relevant Threshold of Impaired Contrast Sensitivity Among Older US Adults

At what level of contrast sensitivity (CS) do older adults begin to experience functional visual disability?This cohort study used nationally representative data from 4475 older adults in the US and identified a threshold of 1.60 logCS as the point at which CS was associated with self-reported visual disability. Each 0.1-unit decrease in baseline CS was associated with 12% higher odds of developing incident visual disability.Although sensitivity and specificity were moderate, reflecting trade-offs at a single cutoff, a CS threshold of 1.60 logCS provides a benchmark for early functional vision loss in older adults.

Corresponding Author: Lindsey B. De Lott, MD, MS, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Michigan, 1000 Wall St, Ann Arbor, MI 48105 (ldelott@med.umich.edu).

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