Age-Related Eye Research Articles

Lighting Design for Elderly Living in Residential Care Facilities

Associated with aging, elderly suffer from various visual impairments that require specialized illumination conditions. Elderly should be supported by a well-balanced visual environment in residential care facilities to ensure active living and visual comfort. Although literature focused on age related eye diseases, significance of illumination to elderly and satisfaction level evaluations are detailed, translations to lighting design are mostly limited to illuminance-related guidelines. The aim of this study is to identify lighting design cues that enable visual comfort conditions through a systematic literature review. Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar are searched from January 2000 to February 2022 and finally 11 papers that meet inclusive criteria are included. This study highlights illumination related problems of elderly and proposes spatial design recommendations to overcome visual discomforts. The reviewed papers’ results have been presented under categories as daylighting, colour rendering index, correlated colour temperature, night illumination, illumination distribution, illumination control, illumination layout, glare, adaptation, and interior design. Presented design recommendations can be applied to existing or future residential care facilities to reduce various visual challenges that elderly have been experiencing.

Peculiarities of Ocular and Systemic Pathology in the Elderly

The pathology of the elderly is the direct result of the aging process, aggravated by the physical and mental involution that occurs with advancing age. Age-related eye changes are present, such as: presbyopia, decreased tears, peripheral visual field reduction, vitreous liquefaction (with posterior vitreous detachment and retinal detachment), decreased vision due to cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, macular lesions, Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), optic atrophy. At the same time, there are multiple systemic diseases in the elderly, at the cardiovascular, respiratory, locomotor, neurological, auditory level. The diseases of the elderly can be multiple, with a long, chronic evolution, with periods of exacerbation, frequent complications, prolonged convalescence. Aging is a continuous, dynamic process that must be followed because in its evolution new connections and balances are created that must be identified and treated properly, old age being a distinct stage of ontogenesis that should not be seen as a state of disease. In an elderly patient, the normal aging should be differentiated from pathology.

Magnitude and Associated Factor of Acute Appendicitis among Adult Patient Admitted At Hawassa University Comprehensive Specialized Hospital in Surgical Ward

The pathology of the elderly is the direct result of the aging process, aggravated by the physical and mental involution that occurs with advancing age. Age-related eye changes are present, such as: presbyopia, decreased tears, peripheral visual field reduction, vitreous liquefaction (with posterior vitreous detachment and retinal detachment), decreased vision due to cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, macular lesions, Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), optic atrophy. At the same time, there are multiple systemic diseases in the elderly, at the cardiovascular, respiratory, locomotor, neurological, auditory level. The diseases of the elderly can be multiple, with a long, chronic evolution, with periods of exacerbation, frequent complications, prolonged convalescence. Aging is a continuous, dynamic process that must be followed because in its evolution new connections and balances are created that must be identified and treated properly, old age being a distinct stage of ontogenesis that should not be seen as a state of disease. In an elderly patient, the normal aging should be differentiated from pathology.

Multiple Eye Disease Detection using Hybrid Adaptive Mutation Swarm Optimization and RNN

The major cause of visual impairment in aged people is due to age related eye diseases such as cataract, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. Early detection of eye diseases is necessary for better diagnosis. This paper concentrates on the early identification of various eye disorders such as cataract, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma from retinal fundus images. The proposed method focuses on the automated early detection of multiple diseases using hybrid adaptive mutation swarm optimization and regression neural networks (AED-HSR). In the proposed work, the input images are preprocessed and then multiple features such as entropy, mean, color, intensity, standard deviation, and statistics are extracted from the collected data. The extracted features are segmented by using an adaptive mutation swarm optimization (AMSO) algorithm to segment the disease sector from the fundus image. Finally, the features collected are fed to a regression neural network (RNN) classifier to classify each fundus image as normal or abnormal. If the classifier output is abnormal, then it is classified by the corresponding diseases in terms of cataract, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy, which improves the accuracy of detection and classification. Ultimately, the results of the classifiers are evaluated by several performance analyses and the viability of structural and functional features is considered. The proposed system predicts the type of the disease with an accuracy of 0.9808, specificity of 0.9934, sensitivity of 0.9803 and F1 score of 0.9861 respectively.

Attenuation of the onset and progression of age-related vision impairments by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation by micronutrients

The major eye diseases refractive error, cataract, age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy can lead to blindness without an early intervention. The treatments include eye glasses for refractive error, surgery for cataract, and medications for glaucoma and ARMD. These therapies do not address oxidative stress and inflammation that contribute to these eye diseases. Therefore, supplementation with antioxidants could be useful. However, administration with single or multiple dietary antioxidants with or without carotenoids (zeaxanthin and lutein), and omega-3-fatty acids, produced no benefits or only modest benefits in certain eye diseases. The problems associated with such antioxidant’s approaches were identified, and potential causes for not producing optimal benefits were presented. The major objectives are to show that enhanced oxidative stress and inflammation contribute to the age-related major eye diseases. This review presents rationales for using a comprehensive mixture of micronutrients containing dietary and endogenous antioxidants, vitamin D3, and carotenoids such as lutein, zeaxanthin, astaxanthin, all B-vitamins, and minerals Zn and Se for simultaneously reducing oxidative and inflammatory damage. Since elevated levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are found in the wet ARMD and diabetic retinopathy, this mixture has ingredients, which reduce VEGF levels. Supplementation with this micronutrient mixture may delay the onset and progression of major eye diseases, and may improve the effectiveness of standard therapy.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AMALAKYADI GANA IN EYE DISORDERS: A REVIEW

Prevention of Eye from various diseases and maintenance of normal vision in today’s digital world is of prime importance. Eyes are especially susceptible and prone to Kapha. That’s why the factors, which are vitiating Pitta or Kapha will lead to eye disorders. The proper use of Chakshushya and Rasayana Dravyas will facilitate to maintain the health of the Netra (eyes) and prevents age related eye disorders. The Chakshushya effect of Amalakyadi gana has been mentioned by Acharya Sushruta in the Sutra Sthana. ‘Amalakyadi Gana’ contains four drugs i.e., Amalaki, Haritaki, Pippali, Chitraka. Each of the drugs exhibit beneficial effects in ocular conditions. Combination of all the four drugs together may work wonder. This review work may help to encourage scientists to elaborate Amalakyadi Gana beneficence in ocular diseases.

4-Hydroxy-7-oxo-5-heptenoic acid lactone can induce mitochondrial dysfunction in retinal pigmented epithelial cells

Oxidation of docosahexaenoate (DHA)-containing phospholipids in the cell plasma membrane leads to release of the α,β-unsaturated aldehyde 4-hydroxy-7-oxo-5-heptenoic acid (HOHA) lactone which is capable of inducing retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cell dysfunction. Previously, HOHA lactone was shown to induce apoptosis and angiogenesis, and to activate the alternative complement pathway. RPE cells metabolize HOHA lactone through enzymatic conjugation with glutathione (GSH). Competing with this process is the adduction of HOHA lactone to protein lysyl residues generating 2-(ω-carboxyethyl)pyrrole (CEP) derivatives that have pathological relevance to age-related macular degeneration (AMD). We now find that HOHA lactone induces mitochondrial dysfunction. It decreases ATP levels, mitochondrial membrane potentials, enzymatic activities of mitochondrial complexes, depletes GSH and induces oxidative stress in RPE cells. The present study confirmed that pyridoxamine and other primary amines, which have been shown to scavenge γ-ketoaldehydes formed by carbohydrate or lipid peroxidation, are ineffective for scavenging the α,β-unsaturated aldehydes. Histidyl hydrazide (HH), that has both hydrazide and imidazole nucleophile functionalities, is an effective scavenger of HOHA lactone and it protects ARPE-19 cells against HOHA lactone-induced cytotoxicity. The HH α-amino group is not essential for this electrophile trapping activity. The Nα-acyl L-histidyl hydrazide derivatives with 2- to 7-carbon acyl groups with increasing lipophilicities are capable of maintaining the effectiveness of HH in protecting ARPE-19 cells against HOHA lactone toxicity, which potentially has therapeutic utility for treatment of age related eye diseases.

Interaction between postmenopausal hormone therapy and diabetes on cataract.

We investigated whether postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) use interacts with diabetes, a risk factor for several age-related eye diseases. A cross-sectional analysis of women involved in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging was performed. The random sample comprised of 15,320 community-dwelling women between ages 45 and 85 years old sampled from areas adjacent to 11 data collection centers across Canada. Information on menopausal status and HT were collected by self-report. Data on diabetes and eye disease were obtained by self-report of a physician diagnosis. Multivariable logistic regression was used. After adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, and health variables, a multiplicative interaction was identified such that HT use for 10 years or more was associated with a much higher odds of a report of cataract in women with type 2 diabetes (odds ratio = 2.44, 95% confidence interval 1.49, 3.99) but not in long-term HT users with no diabetes (odds ratio = 1.03, 95% confidence interval 0.87, 1.21) (interaction term P value = 0.013). HT use was not associated with glaucoma or macular degeneration. Long-term HT use and type 2 diabetes interact in their relationship with cataract. This novel finding should be confirmed. If confirmed, women with type 2 diabetes should be informed that long-term HT use increases their risk of cataract. : Video Summary:http://links.lww.com/MENO/A519.

Distributed machine learning cloud teleophthalmology IoT for predicting AMD disease progression

The ability to perform screening of potential vision-impairing diseases remotely with an Ophthalmologist-in-the-loop is crucial in serving the Medically Underserved Areas/Population (MUA/P) and in acute medical settings, such as emergency departments. With an estimated 217 million individuals affected by moderate to severe vision-impairing diseases worldwide and an increasing number of new patients with such diseases, the need for access to faster (or real-time) diagnosis on a large scale is imperative. It is evident that early diagnosis of chronic diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) could better prevent vision loss. In this paper, a scalable cloud based teleophthalmology architecture via the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) for diagnosis of AMD is presented. In the proposed architecture, patients wear a head-mounted camera (OphthoAI IoMT headset) to send their retinal fundus images to their secure and private cloud drive storage for personalized disease severity detection and predictive progression analysis. A proposed AMD-ResNet convolution neural network with 152 layers will then analyze the images to identify and determine AMD disease severity. The algorithm is trained with AREDS (age related eye disease study) images from the National Institute of Health (NIH) with over 130,000 fundus images captured over 12 years, and for determining AMD severity, we achieve a sensitivity and specificity of 94.97 ± 0.5% and 98.32 ± 0.1% respectively. A temporal Long–Short Term Memory (LSTM) deep neural network for precision medicine and AMD predictive progression is also proposed. Patient personalization allows better targeted care, lesser side effects, and a greater likelihood of responding to treatments by tailoring healthcare on a per-patient basis.

Detection of Choroidal Neovascularization Through Characterization of Changes in Anterior and Posterior Eye Segments

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) is an age related eye disease caused due to the growth of new blood vessels beneath the retina which leads to vision loss. This is identified by analyzing the changes in the anterior segment such as filtration angle, which is one of the important parameters in ophthalmology and analyzing the posterior segment of the retinal image such as thickness of fusiform and commotion of blood vessels in Retinal Pigment Epithelium layer. Using image processing techniques, the Optical Coherence Tomography images of anterior and posterior eye segments are analyzed and the factors such as Angle opening distance, Euler number, thickness, angle of elevation and its maximum thickness value (in pixels) of the image are obtained. It is observed that there is a vast change in the above factors during CNV and thus it is possible to get knowledge whether the particular person is suffering from the disease or not. The factors obtained are fed to Neural Classifier which is used to show whether the person is in the starting stage or final stage of the disease.

Wound healing of human embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelial cells is affected by maturation stage

BackgroundWound healing of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is a complex process that may take place in common age-related macular degeneration eye disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether wounding and wound healing has an effect on Ca2+ dynamics in human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-RPEs cultured different periods of time.MethodsThe 9-day-cultured or 28-day-cultured hESC-RPEs from two different cell lines were wounded and the dynamics of spontaneous and mechanically induced intracellular Ca2+ activity was measured with live-cell Ca2+ imaging either immediately or 7 days after wounding. The healing time and speed were analyzed with time-lapse bright field microscopy. The Ca2+ activity and healing speed were analysed with image analysis. In addition the extracellular matrix deposition was assessed with confocal microscopy.Results The Ca2+ dynamics in hESC-RPE monolayers differed depending on the culture time: 9-day-cultured cells had higher number of cells with spontaneous Ca2+ activity close to freshly wounded edge compared to control areas, whereas in 28-day-cultured cells there was no difference in wounded and control areas. The 28-day-cultured, wounded and 7-day-healed hESC-RPEs produced wide-spreading intercellular Ca2+ waves upon mechanical stimulation, while in controls propagation was restricted. Most importantly, both wave spreading and spontaneous Ca2+ activity of cells within the healed area, as well as the cell morphology of 28-day-cultured, wounded and thereafter 7-day-healed areas resembled the 9-day-cultured hESC-RPEs.ConclusionsThis acquired knowledge about Ca2+ dynamics of wounded hESC-RPE monolayers is important for understanding the dynamics of RPE wound healing, and could offer a reliable functionality test for RPE cells. The data presented in here suggests that assessment of Ca2+ dynamics analysed with image analysis could be used as a reliable non-invasive functionality test for RPE cells.

„The Big Five“ – Kataraktchirurgie bei multiplen okulären Komorbiditäten: individuelle Vorgehensweise zur Komplikationsvermeidung

The co-occurence of 5 diseases (cataract, Fuchs dystrophy, pseudoexfoliation syndrome, age-related macular degeneration and dry eye syndrome) can lead to massive impairment of visual acuity. Our case series show that cataract surgery can lead to an enormous profit in visual rehabilitation and therefore in daily routine.

Dry Age Related Macular Degeneration – Oral Supplements, Which Combination and When ?

Age related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of visual loss in the elderly, is emerging as an important public health problem due to the increase in the ageing population. Dry AMD which is the more prevalent form has no effective treatment and so efforts are directed to slow down or prevent progression of retinal changes by optimizing the risk, factors for AMD. Oxidative stress in the retina has been identified as an important predisposing factor which can be most efficiently modified by nutritional supplementation. Two large randomized controlled trials namely AREDS (Age related eye disease study) 1 and 2 provided high quality evidence to support the use of vitamins and micronutrients in preventing the progression of disease, especially in those with intermediate or advanced AMD. Supplementation with oral antioxidants soon became the standard of care for dry AMD, both due to its perceived universal benefit and its cost effectiveness. Though a wide range of antioxidants are available in the market, hardly any of them contain ingredients recommended by AREDS in the correct dosage. It is therefore important that ophthalmologists should be equipped with proper information regarding these products and advise the patients appropriately after considering their individual needs. A comprehensive list of antioxidants available in our country is included in this article which can be used as a reference to guide the patients. Physicians should be familiar with AREDS recommendations and should select patients appropriately. Patient education to improve compliance and counseling regarding life style modifications are also important in controlling this public health problem.

Role of Rasayana in Netra Roga

Ayurveda is the most ancient medical science in the world and being the science of life, deals with every aspect of the life. The main aim of Ayurveda is the promotion of health and prevention of diseases. Rasayana Chikitsa is one of the eight branches of Ayurveda and the term Rasayana is derived from the root word Rasa and Ayana, which means Rasa Gamanam (transportation/ transformation of Rasa). It is the best means of keeping the Rasa and other Dhatus in excellent condition. Rasayana Chikitsa helps to achieve long life, better recollection, increased intellect, healthy body and mind, youth fullness, good complexion, good voice, abundance of body and sense organ strength, increased lusture. The main Rasayanas adopted in Netra Chikitsa are Naimitika Rasayana and Achara Rasayana. The appropriate use of Chakshushya and Rasayana Dravyas will help to maintain the health of the Netra and prevents age related eye disorders. This article presents various Rasayana Dravyas related to Netra Roga.

Specialist report: Dry eye disease and aging

The common ocular pathologies relating to the aging eye, such as cataract, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, or macular degeneration, are all known to reduce visual functioning. Less wellknown is the effect of common, age-related dry eye disease (DED). The impact of DED on daily activities can be intense, especially with reduced visual functioning, for example, an inability to watch television, or read from a tablet or smartphone screen. As a result of reduced visual functioning, DED is particularly problematic for ageing office-workers. Moreover, office work involving computer-use is known to adversely affect the tear film. Consequently, with the extension in retirement age in the working population, an increase in the incidence and extent of (dry) eye-related problems can be expected. This literature paper addresses the impact of age-related DED on visual functioning, the complexity of assessing visual functioning in daily activities at home or at work, the development of dry eye symptoms with increasing age, and the relationship of these issues with environmental factors. Special attention is made to the influence of light and light conditions that can positively and negatively influence visual functioning.

Photobiomodulation reduces drusen volume and improves visual acuity and contrast sensitivity in dry age-related macular degeneration.

PurposeTo evaluate the efficacy of photobiomodulation (PBM) treatment for patients with dry age‐related macular degeneration (AMD).MethodsAssessments on 42 eyes with dry AMD (age related eye disease study (AREDS) 2–4) were conducted. Multiwavelength light emitting diode (LED) light comprising of yellow (590 nm), red (670 nm) and near‐infrared (790 nm) bandwidths was applied to subjects’ eyes for a treatment course of 3 weeks. Outcome measures were changes in best‐corrected visual acuity (BCVA), contrast sensitivity (CS), drusen volume and central drusen thickness.ResultsSignificant improvement in mean BCVA of 5.90 letters (p < 0.001) was seen on completion of the 3‐week treatment and 5.14 letters (p < 0.001) after 3 months. Contrast sensitivity improved significantly (log unit improvement of 0.11 (p = 0.02) at 3 weeks and 3 months (log unit improvement of 0.16 (p = 0.02) at three cycles per degree. Drusen volume decreased by 0.024 mm3 (p < 0.001) and central drusen thickness was significantly reduced by a mean of 3.78 μm (p < 0.001), while overall central retinal thickness and retinal volume remained stable.ConclusionThis is the first study demonstrating improvements in functional and anatomical outcomes in dry AMD subjects with PBM therapy. These findings corroborate an earlier pilot study that looked at functional outcome measures. The addition of anatomical evidence contributes to the basis for further development of a non‐invasive PBM treatment for dry AMD.

Incidence et causes de déficiences visuelles au Gouvernorat de Mahdia, à l’est de la Tunisie : étude rétrospective à propos de 1487 cas

To study socio-demographic characteristics and main causes related to visual impairment (VI) as a function of age bracket and to analyze their trends over time in the district of Mahdia. A retrospective review was performed on 1487cases of visual impairment registered with the social authorities in Mahdia, between 1980 and 2013. The social, demographic, vision exam findings and causes were ascertained and analyzed in an SPSS database. Incidence rates of VI and blindness due to various causes were calculated based on the demographic data from the NSI to estimate the time trends using the general linear regression model and Spearman correlation. Analyses included 1487participants with a median age of 47 years, 40.6% of cases were aged under 45 years. Children accounted for 11.1% (165 patients), while age was between 16 and 45 years in 29.5% (439 patients), between 46 and 65 years in 31.5% (469 patients) and greater than 65 years in 27.8% (414 patients). The sex-ratio (M/F) was 1.78. Socially, 51% came from rural areas, 62% were illiterate, and 84% were unemployed. We observed blindness in 70% of participants and low vision in 30%. In children, the causes were dominated by congenital cataract and congenital glaucoma, each present in 31 children (18.8%). Between 16 and 45 years, glaucoma and hereditary dystrophies of the retina were found in 62 and 61 patients respectively (14% each). For age between 46 and 65 years, trachoma was responsible for 19.8% of cases of VI, glaucoma in 15.8% and cataract in 15.1%. Beyond 65 years, glaucoma accounted for 30.7% of the causes of VI and cataract 27.8% of cases. Trend analysis shows a significant increase in the incidence rate of visual impairment with an average of 12% per year (P=0.001). The mean age increased by 46% (P=0.003). Trachoma increased by 118% (P<0.0001) between 1980 and 1990, then declined by 42% (P=0.0013) between 1991 and 2013. Incidence of VI significantly increased by 4% for cataract (P=0.001), 23% (P=0.001) for glaucoma and 20% (P=0.02) for diabetic retinopathy, while VI related to refractive errors and AMD showed no significant change. Advanced age, lower educational and socio-economic status were associated with bilateral VI. Age related eye problems are the main causes of VI, and their incidence is tending to increase. Public health policies and procedures should be targeted to risk related populations and age-related diseases in order to control the incidence of visual impairment and avoid its consequences.

Stepped care for depression and anxiety in visually impaired older adults: multicentre randomised controlled trial

Study question Is stepped care compared with usual care effective in preventing the onset of major depressive, dysthymic, and anxiety disorders in older people with visual impairment (caused mainly by...

Relation between Vision Function and Self Care Practices of Older Adults with Cataract

Cataract is the most common age related eye disease in older adults. It affects their subjective vision function. Impaired vision functions affect older adult's ability to perform self care practices and consequently affect their ability to function safely and independently. Objective: Determine the relation between visual impairment and self care practices in older adults with cataract. Setting: The outpatient clinic of the ophthalmic center in Mansoura University. Subjects: 100 elderly patients, aged 60 years and above and diagnosed with senile cataract. Tools: Socio-demographic &clinical data structured interview schedule, Vision Function Questionnaire and Self care practices of older adults with cataract. Results: Impaired vision function in older adults with cataract affected significantly their ability to perform self care practices of older adults. Conclusion: Being familiar with their own home environment, one half of the study subjects reported no problem with self care practices. Recommendations: Health education about measures that maintain vision function to be provided by professional nurses in outpatients clinics to enhance self care practices.

The aging eye.

With the advancement of medical science, average life expectancy of individuals is ever increasing. Percentage of elderly population has increased from 6.2% in 1990 to 8.2% in 2015 worldwide (http://www.unescap.org/resources/1-population). However, with increasing life expectancy, the prevalence of age related diseases will also increase, which will affect the quality of life in elderly population worldwide. Eye is our window to the outer world and deterioration of this vital organ with age will definitely affect the lifestyle of the elderly people. According to WHO, approximately 65% of the population aged over 50 years has some forms of visual impairment (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/). Therefore, understating and managing the age related changes in eye calls for significant effort and attention from the scientific world. This special issue focuses on the age related changes and diseases of eye as well as their management in elderly population. Eight meticulously chosen papers in this special issue focus on different aspects of vision problem and their management in elderly population. Cataract is one of the major eye pathologies of elderly people. X. Yuan et al. reported the prevalence of astigmatism in eyes requiring cataract surgery. They found that prevalence of astigmatism also increases with age and discussed its implication in visual rehabilitation. L. Zuo et al. discussed the effect of unilateral or bilateral cataract surgery on visual acuity and quality of life in elderly patient. Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is involved in various age related pathological changes in the eye including AMD. A. V. Kuznetsova et al. discussed the prospects of using RPE cell line in modelling various pathological changes in human disease and their potential use in retinal repair after ocular pathologies. They also discussed various signaling pathways in RPE which can be used as potential targets for different eye diseases. L. Ottobelli et al. discussed the changes in ocular surface with increasing age and determined the frequency of ocular surface disease (OSD) with age. They concluded that dry eye disease (DED) is the most frequently occurring OSD and its frequency increases with age. A. Sharma and H. B. Hindman reviewed various aspect of DED with the increasing age. Glaucoma is another major cause of vision loss especially in elderly population. Early detection and medical intervention are necessary to control vision loss due to glaucoma. Measurement of anterior chamber angle is an important parameter for diagnosis and management of glaucoma. M. Rigi et al., in this issue, have described a new parameter called TICV (trabecular-iris circumference volume) to detect the health of anterior chamber by optical coherence tomography. N. L. Pratt et al. discussed the relationship between bradycardia and Timolol, a widely used glaucoma medication, and concluded that patients' medical history should be reviewed before prescribing the medication. The study emphasizes the importance of considering full clinical information of patients for deciding treatment regimen taking into account other systemic ailments that the patient is already exposed to or might be predisposed to. Finally, M. Oles and P. Oles discussed the issue of quality of lifestyle in people with low vision especially due to cataract and glaucoma. Their study highlights the importance of social support and task oriented coping to improve quality of life for individuals with low vision. Age related eye diseases, being one of the most prevalent causes of blindness worldwide, demand attention as a global health problem. Research efforts must be concentrated on early detection and cost-effective methods of intervention accessible by people belonging to all economic strata globally. This issue is a small step towards such efforts for prevention of blindness and improving quality of human lives with progression of age. Suddhasil Mookherjee Ashima Bhattacharjee Mainak Sengupta