Glaucoma, Visual Field Loss, and Their Association With Life Space in Older Adults

Summary

Mobility refers to a person's purposeful movement through the environment from one place to another and can be conceptualized as a continuum from bed bound (immobility) on one extreme to making excursions to distant locations on the other extreme. Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is a chronic, progressive optic neuropathy that can lead to gradual loss of vision in the peripheral field and central vision. Older adults with POAG have an increased risk for motor vehicle collisions and falls. Moreover, existing studies suggest that patients with POAG exhibit more postural sway while standing as measured by a balance platform and also tend to walk more slowly than those who are normally sighted and free of ocular disease. While these disturbances likely influence mobility, there has been little research directly assessing the impact of POAG on mobility. This study will assess the impact of POAG on life space (one aspect of mobility) and will determine whether difficulties with life space are associated with difficulties experienced under conditions of dim lighting.

Conditions

• Primary Open Angle Glaucoma

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Life Space Questionnaire

This 9-item questionnaire is interested in finding out how much a person gets out and about and the spatial extent of the person's typical life space, i.e., what is the usual range of places in which the person engages in activities within the designated time frame.

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Low Luminance Questionnaire

This 32-item questionnaire is interested in finding out problems that involve vision under different lighting conditions or feelings that people have about your vision under different lighting conditions.

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Contrast sensitivity under dim illumination

Participants will be presented with visual targets of different contrast under dim illumination and asked to report when they see the target.

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Visual field under dim illumination (MAIA)

Sensitivity in the central visual area will be assessed under dim illumination

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Macular Pigment Optical Density (MPOD)

Participants will be asked to look at a fixation target and the density of their macular pigment will be assessed.

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Dark Adaptation

After adapting to a dark environment, participants will be exposed a bright flask of light. the time needed for them to recover their sensitivity will be measured.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Alabama at Birmingham

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Lyne Racette, PhD · University of Alabama at Birmingham

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

100 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-06-01

Primary Completion

2026-05-30

Completion

2026-05-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations