The PrOVIDe Study: sample characteristics

Purpose : The PrOVIDe study aimed to investigate the prevalence of a range of vision problems among people with dementias, aged 60-89 years and to examine the extent to which these conditions are undetected or inappropriately managed.\ud \ud Methods : The study had two stages, a cross-sectional prevalence study followed by qualitative research. In Stage 1, 708 people with dementia (389 living at home and 319 in care homes) had a domiciliary eye examination. The inclusion criteria were people with dementia (any type), aged 60-89 years; individuals lacking mental capacity to provide informed consent to participate required a consultee who could give approval on their behalf.\ud \ud Results : 22 percent reported not having had a test in the last two years: this included 19 participants who had not been tested in the last 10 years. Prevalence of visual impairment (VI) was 32.4% (95% Confidence Intervals (CI) 28.7 to 36.5) and 16.3% (CI 13.5 to 19.6) for the commonly-used criteria for VI of visual acuity (VA) worse than 6/12 and 6/18 respectively. Of those with VI, 44% (VA