Functional activities limited by people with age-related macular degeneration
Introduction
Activities of daily living (ADL) refer to self-care tasks. It is classified into basic ADL (BADL) and Instrumental ADL (IADL). The former one is essential for the patients in life such as eating and personal hygiene while the latter one is for the people to function in the community such as shopping.
This may sound easy for a normal human being. However, for a low vision patient, even a very simple task will be a challenge. Low vision refers to impairment of vision which cannot be corrected by surgical or medical means or by standard refractive correction. Low vision patients should have the distance acuity of 6/18 or even poorer to light perception, or with significant visual field loss.
With such a poor visual acuity or visual field, patients with visual impairment may find difficulties in daily activities. This article will show different types of functional activities that will be limited by low vision people and will mainly focus on specific group of low vision patients, exudative age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD). AMD is a degenerative disease that affects the macula, which will have progressive loss of vision to cause the visual impairment.
Exudative AMD (wet type) is less common than the non-exudative (dry) one, but it will lead to progressive vision loss and is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world while dry AMD will also have a chance to progress to wet AMD.
This article will cover both basic activities of daily living (BADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) limited by AMD patients.
Basic activities of daily living
To start with, this article will discuss the basic ADL which will be a...
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During my childhood I was diagnosed as having poor eyesight and was prescribed glasses to assist with my vision correction. I realize how blessed I am to have had that as an option. I was always in awe of the environment and creatures who inhabited the various areas of nature. The sense of vision is very important and without the ability to see an individual would be missing out on many colorful life experiences. Blindness, which is the lack of the ability to see is a very dark and challenging disability. Without one’s eyes, everyday activities such a walking, reading, eating and identifying people can be a struggle. It has been proven that the brain will adapt to the loss by giving itself a makeover. If one sense is lost,
To deal with the issue of an aging population, an awareness campaign about the health issues that commonly affect aged people should be run by the government and non-governmental agencies. In addition, awareness should be created among the young to accommodate the elderly; at home as well as at work places...
The book is an exceptional reference for any individual who care for the elderly; it provides insight on how to arran...
Glaucoma is a common and important health problem. It is one of the leading causes of blindness in Western Society (Hoskins & Kass, 1989). It is responsible for ten percent of all blindness in the United States and continues to be the second or third most common cause of blindness in the world (Bunce, Fraser, & Wormald, 1999). It is estimated that two million people in the United States have been diagnosed as having glaucoma. Glaucoma is known to affect about two percent of Caucasians beginning at the age of 40 with an increasing risk for those over the age of 60. This risk is especially high if a member of the family has glaucoma or diabetes. Further, there is a higher risk of a glaucoma diagnosis for African Americans over the age of 40.
Individuals who suffer from dementia become more dependent on other people. Eventually, they will be unable to carry out simple activities, otherwise known as activities of daily living or ADLs. Activities of daily living include things such as proper hygiene, paying bills, or preparing food. The patient will often experience personality changes. Someone who was once kind may become defensive and angry. Patients may display inappropriate behavior and experience paranoia and hallucinations. The affected individual may have to adjust to many different things throughout the course of the disease such as losing the ability to drive, carry out everyday tasks, and in some cases, move to a care facility. Dementia brings an increased risk of neglect and abuse, especially to the patients who are being cared for by a family member at home. Neglect is known as the failure to provide proper attention or care such as food, medication, and clothing. Causing physical, financial, or emotional harm to a person with dementia is also considered
The documentation of a severe form of dementia by Alois Alzheimer in 1907 began a massive investigation of the cause of this disorder. Some of the common symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease consist of memory loss, impaired language ability, impaired judgement, and learning (M. Wong, et al. , 1997). Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is mainly a disease of the cerebral cortex. Alzheimer's is marked structurally by the senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and severe loss of neurons and synapses in the cerebral cortex. Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disorder ( Hof, Vogt, Bouras, and Morrison 1997). Recent attention has been focused on visual dysfunction in Alzheimer's Disease (K. U. Loffler, D. P. Edward, & M. O. M. Tso 1995).
Alzheimer’s disease is a serious disease which causes people to behave in a challenging way for their family and caregivers to manage. These behaviours are caused by damage to the brain that leads to psychological and functional impairment. Due to this impairment the people with AD are often neglected and labelled by the society. Family caregivers play a massive role in the care of their loved ones with AD. Patients and family caregivers often experience stress in dealing with all the obstacles that Alzheimer’s disease put them through.
Macular degeneration also known as late, aged-related maculopathy is an eye disorder which causes a decrease in the visual field known as the retinal macula (Medical Encyclopedia, 2000). The majority of people who are affected are people over the age of 65, but occasionally it develops earlier in people 40-50 years old (Philippi, 2000). The majority of the visual loss is located in the central part of the visual field, while the peripheral vision is unharmed. There are also two types of macular degeneration, the "wet" and "dry" forms. The "dry" form of this disease is the most popular, affecting 90% of the cases (American Academy of Ophthalmology, 1997).
Alzheimer’s disease slowly steals a person’s dignity and erases precious memories. The “Alzheimer’s Disease Guide”, found on WebMD explains that tasks become more difficult to do often leading to confusion and behavior changes. The article further explains the progression of the disease also brings hardship to family and friends (1). To best cope with Alzheimer’s we must better understand the disease.
Warren, M. (2008). Memory Loss, Dementia, and Stroke: Implications for Rehabilitation of Older Adults with Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 102(10), 611-615.
As the life expectancy in the United States rises, the number of elderly in the population has also expanded. These increases have led to the oldest-old (people aged 90 and older) to become the fastest growing age group in the country. The oldest-old face many unique challenges because of their age, one of which is disability. Disability in the elderly has major impact upon society 1 and will continue will be a growing burden in years to come.
One of the most common problems in elders is dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association describes dementia as a range of symptoms rather than just one single specific disease. The symptoms of dementia range from memory loss as well as a decline in thinking skills to severe symptoms that lead to the decline of that person’s ability to perform activities of daily living (What
Dementia is defined by the World Health Organization as a syndrome due to damage of the brain cells that most often chronic and progressive in nature. Some of the cortical functions that become impaired include memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language and judgment. Other manifestations that may accompany this disease are deterioration in emotional control, social behavior or motivation (Ouldred & Bryant, 2009) Dementia is not a normal part of aging, however it occurs most frequently in the older population. Fifteen percent of Americans over the age of sixty-five have dementia, and as the average life span continues to increase, so will the number of those affected by dementia (Fredman, James, Johnson, Scholz, & Weuve, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the pathophysiology, risk factors, symptoms, and treatment options for different types of dementia.