Purpose:
Since 1987 all nursing homes which participate in the Medicare and Medicaid insurance programs have been required to administer the Long Term Care Resident Assessment Inventory which includes the Minimum Data Set (MDS). The MDS contains a short section on vision and represents the long term care facilities’ assessment of the resident's visual abilities. The MDS vision assessment evaluates three areas including vision, vision symptoms and use of optical devices. Based on reading ability descriptors vision is rated into one of five categories. This study evaluates the association of the MDS vision categorization with questionnaire assessments of the VF-14, Activities of Daily Vision (ADVS) and a vision-targeted health-related quality of life questionnaire developed specifically for the nursing home (NHVQoL).
Methods:
Subjects were 393 residents of nursing homes in the Birmingham, Alabama metropolitan area (ages ≥ 55 years). Participants had Mini-Mental State Exam scores of ≥ 13. Residents with severely impaired vision (MDS level 4) were excluded. MDS assessment was obtained from the subject's chart records. Interviews were conducted with subjects at each facility by trained research staff. Analysis of variance was used to evaluate the association between MDS categories and questionnaire responses.
Results:
Mean functional vision scores by MDS category are found below.
Conclusions:
The MDS vision rating generated by nursing home staff was associated with self-rated vision on each of the three functional assessment instruments evaluated.
Keywords: quality of life • aging: visual performance