Co-morbidity of depression and anxiety in common age-related eye diseases: a population-based study of 662 adults

This study examined the prevalence of co-morbid age-related eye disease and symptoms of depression and anxiety in late life, and the relative roles of visual function and disease in explaining symptoms of depression and anxiety. A community-based sample of 662 individuals aged over 70 years was recruited through the electoral roll. Vision was measured using a battery of tests including high and low contrast visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, motion sensitivity, stereoacuity, Useful Field of View, and visual fields. Depression and anxiety symptoms were measured using the Goldberg scales. The prevalence of self-reported eye disease [cataract, glaucoma, or age-related macular degeneration (AMD)] in the sample was 43.4%, with 7.7% reporting more than one form of ocular pathology. Of those with no eye disease, 3.7% had clinically significant depressive symptoms. This rate was 6.7% among cataract patients, 4.3% among those with glaucoma, and 10.5% for AMD. Generalized linear models adjusting for demographics, general health, treatment, and disability examined self-reported eye disease and visual function as correlates of depression and anxiety. Depressive symptoms were associated with cataract only, AMD, comorbid eye diseases and reduced low contrast visual acuity. Anxiety was significantly associated with self-reported cataract, and reduced low contrast visual acuity, motion sensitivity and contrast sensitivity. We found no evidence for elevated rates of depressive or anxiety symptoms associated with self-reported glaucoma. The results support previous findings of high rates of depression and anxiety in cataract and AMD, and in addition show that mood and anxiety are associated with objective measures of visual function independently of self-reported eye disease. The findings have implications for the assessment and treatment of mental health in the context of late-life visual impairment.NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia

Self-awareness of driving impairment in patients with cataract or glaucoma

This study compared the driving performance of individuals with the eye diseases cataracts or glaucoma with age-matched controls, as well as the individual’s own perceptions of driving. Participants included drivers over the age of 50 years who had been diagnosed with glaucoma (n=29) or cataracts (n=33) and a control group with no ocular pathology (n=13). Driving performance was measured on a closed road circuit using a range of standardised measures of vehicle control and hazard recognition and avoidance, while visual performance was measured with a battery of tests including visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and visual fields. Perceptions of vision and driving were assessed using the Activities of Daily Vision Scale, Driver Behaviour Questionnaire and a driving exposure questionnaire. Driving performance was significantly poorer (p<0.05) for each of the ocular disease groups compared to the control group. Impaired contrast sensitivity and the higher disease severity scores (for the glaucoma group only) correlated most strongly with poorer driving performance. While participants with cataracts rated their vision significantly more poorly than those in the glaucoma and control groups, there were no significant differences between the participant groups rating of their own driving performance. These findings suggest that there is no direct relationship between self-rated driving ability and actual vision and driving performance. This has serious road safety implications

Eighty phenomena about the self: representation, evaluation, regulation, and change

We propose a new approach for examining self-related aspects and phenomena. The approach includes (1) a taxonomy and (2) an emphasis on multiple levels of mechanisms. The taxonomy categorizes approximately eighty self-related phenomena according to three primary functions involving the self: representing, effecting, and changing. The representing self encompasses the ways in which people depict themselves, either to themselves or to others (e.g., self-concepts, self-presentation). The effecting self concerns ways in which people facilitate or limit their own traits and behaviors (e.g., self-enhancement, self-regulation). The changing self is less time-limited than the regulating self; it concerns phenomena that involve lasting alterations in how people represent and control themselves (e.g., self-expansion, self-development). Each self-related phenomenon within these three categories may be examined at four levels of interacting mechanisms (social, individual, neural, and molecular). We illustrate our approach by focusing on seven self-related phenomena

Powerful tools for motor-based treatment approaches

Since the phonological revolution in the 1970s, SLTs have embraced phonological intervention when dealing with speech sound disorders (SSDs) and largely turned their backs on articulatory approaches. Joffe and Pring (2008) surveyed 98 clinicians working with children with speech difficulties and found the most common approaches used with this client group were auditory discrimination, minimal pairs and phonological awareness, with articulatory approaches used only ‘sometimes’ by around half of respondents. While there is good evidence that phonological impairments can be remediated with these types of phonological therapies (Law, Garrett and Nye, 2003), there remains a proportion of children with persistent SSDs for whom traditional phonological approaches do not provide the whole solution. For these children, the likely root of the impairment is motoric (Gibbon et al, 1999 )

Crommet Creek Conservation Area Management Plan

The Crommet Creek Conservation Area comprises the largest block of natural lands in the immediate Great Bay watershed, and in New Hampshire’s North Atlantic Coast Ecoregion. It includes the entire watershed of two tidal creeks that flow directly into the Great Bay Estuary. The area has been identified by the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership as a protection priority due to the size of the natural area; the diversity of habitats and wildlife it supports; and it’s integral role in protecting the regional water quality and resources within the Great Bay Estuary. The Conservation Area includes headwater wetlands, and the entire spectrum of freshwater and estuarine wetland and aquatic communities along both Lubberland and Crommet creeks. The Great Bay is a shallow inland tidal estuary of national importance for migratory birds. The Great Bay supports 29 species of waterfowl, 27 species of shorebirds, 13 species of wading birds, osprey and bald eagle. The Estuary is unique in that it is recessed 9 miles from the ocean along the Piscataqua River. Although development is increasing in the watershed, it remains one of the more healthy and viable estuarine ecosystems on the North Atlantic coast

Editorial: Exploring the Technological Needs of Older Adults: Advances in Design, Functionality, User Experience, and Age-Related Cognitive and Sensory Aids to Facilitate Adoption

The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, robotics, communication, and automation have been the catalyst for the development of a host of new technologies that allow older users to monitor their own health (via wearables), maintain their independence (semi-autonomous driving), social connections (smart home devices), and compensate for a range of age-related sensory changes (hearing aids, smart glasses, augmented displays, etc.). Less well understood is how older users get acquainted with these innovations, how their design and functionality need to be adapted to improve older users’ performance and experience, and which factors and interventions help or hinder technology adoption and use by older users. This Research Topic aims at providing some further insights into these issues

Editorial: Exploring the technological needs of older adults: Advances in design, functionality, user experience, and age-related cognitive and sensory aids to facilitate adoption

Editorial on the Research Topic Exploring the technological needs of older adults: Advances in design, functionality, user experience, and age-related cognitive and sensory aids to facilitate adoptio