Prevalence of self-reported chronic conditions and poor health among older adults with and without vision impairment in China: a nationally representative cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Objective To examine the self-reported prevalence of 13 chronic conditions and poor health among Chinese adults aged 45 years and older with and without self-reported vision impairment. Design Cross-sectional study from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2018, a nationally representative survey of Chinese adults aged 45 years and older involving 19 374 participants. Methods We used logistic regression to assess the association between vision impairment and 13 common chronic conditions and between vision impairment and poor health for those with any of these chronic conditions. Results Older people with self-reported vision impairment were significantly more likely to report all 13 chronic conditions (all p<0·05). After controlling for age, gender, education, residential status (rural vs urban), smoking and BMI, the highest adjusted odds were for hearing impairment (OR=4.00 (95% CI 3·60 to 4·44]) and depression (OR=2.28 (95% CI 2.06 to 2.51)). The lowest risk, though still significant, was for diabetes (OR=1·33 (95% CI 1.11 to 2.05)) and hypertension (OR=1.20 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.38)). After controlling for these potential confounding factors, among older people with chronic conditions, those with vision impairment were 2.20 to 4.04 times more likely to have poor health, compared with those without vision impairment (all p<0.001), with the exception of cancer (p=0.595). Conclusions Higher prevalence of chronic conditions is strongly associated with vision impairment among older Chinese adults and poor health is strongly associated with vision impairment among people with chronic conditions.