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ABSTRACT
Purpose: To examine the association between vision impairment and all-cause hospitalization among elderly Medicare beneficiaries.
Methods: A population-based study (N = 22,681) of community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older who participated in the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey for the years 2001–2007. Beneficiaries were classified into self-reported presence of vision impairment versus no vision impairment. Inpatient hospitalizations were identified using Medicare claims data. A multivariable Cox proportional hazard model examined the association between presence of vision impairment and time to first hospitalization within 3 years of survey entry after adjusting for sociodemographics, comorbidities, hearing impairment, and activity limitation stages derived from difficulty performing the activities of daily living.
Results: Medicare beneficiaries who self-reported the presence of vision impairment were significantly more likely to be hospitalized over 3 years compared to beneficiaries without vision impairment even after adjustment for potentially influential covariates (hazard ratio = 1.14 and 95% confidence interval: 1.05–1.23).
Conclusions: Medicare beneficiaries with self-reported vision impairment were at higher risk of hospitalization during a 3-year period. Further research may identify reasons that are amenable to policy interventions.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the writing and content of this article.
Funding
This work was supported through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute PCORI Project Program Award AD-12-11-4567 and by the National Institutes of Health (R01AG040105 and R01HD074756).