A United States study has found visual impairment (VI) is associated with higher mortality, driven primarily by non-cardiovascular, non-cancer causes of death.
Several previous studies have observed the association between VI and increased all-cause mortality. This recent analysis set out to examine whether this excess risk is concentrated in non‑cardiovascular, non‑cancer deaths rather than heart disease or malignancy – and found that it is.
The findings suggest that vision loss may act as a “marker of systemic vulnerability and support integrating vision assessment into chronic disease management and preventive care strategies”.
To conduct the study, published in The American Journal of Ophthalmology,1 researchers analysed data from a sample of almost 12,000 adults, aged 40+ years. Almost 1,200 of these participants had visual acuity worse than 20/40 in the better‑seeing eye. Then, the researchers linked this data to the National Death Index.
The researchers believe the excess mortality risk observed among patients with VI could be attributed to “impaired mobility, disability, and reduced capacity for chronic disease self-management”.
Over a mean follow up of 13.2 years, 3,871 participants died (23.6%). Mortality was significantly higher among those with VI (48.2%) vs those without (21.8%). Survival differences were substantial: five‑year survival was 78.5% with VI vs 91.6% without, 10‑year survival was 58.6% vs 81.0% and 15‑year survival was 44.2% vs 69.5%.
The researchers believe the excess mortality risk observed among patients with VI could be attributed to “impaired mobility, disability, and reduced capacity for chronic disease self-management”.
Reference
- Kim T, Liu JZ, Patel NA, et al. Visual Impairment as a marker of systemic vulnerability and cause-specific mortality in U.S. adults. Am. J. Ophthalmol. Apr 2026; in press. doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2026.04.019.
