Abstract
Purpose :
People with Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) make unsafe street-crossing decisions at non-signalized streets compared to people with normal vision. However, how often are people with AMD crossing non-signalized streets in their daily life? This study assessed the crossing frequency and perceived level of difficulty associated with crossing different types of non-signalized streets in people with AMD.
Methods :
A custom survey was designed to assess how frequently (never, rarely (a few times per month), or often (several times a week)) subjects crossed non-signalized (i) one-way streets; (ii) two-way streets; and (iii) roundabouts. When subjects reported that they crossed a particular street, they were also asked to rate the level of difficulty associated with crossing that type of street using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = no difficulty, 2 = slightly difficult, 3 = moderately difficult, 4 = very difficult or 5 = impossible). The survey was administered to 38 subjects with AMD (mean age: 81.9 years) and 30 older control subjects with normal vision (mean age: 77.0 years). Fisher’s Exact Tests and Independent t-tests were performed to determine if the frequency and difficulty levels of crossing each of the different types of streets differed between the AMD and control subjects, respectively.
Results :
AMD subjects reported crossing (either often or rarely) one-way streets (71.4%) and roundabouts (26.3%) as frequently as the control subjects (92.9%, p=0.16 for one-way streets and 20.8%, p=0.38 for roundabouts). There was a significant difference in the percentage of subjects crossing two-way streets (p=0.04), where control subjects (23%) crossed two-way streets more often than AMD subjects (10%), whereas AMD subjects (23%) were more likely to never cross this street type compared to the control subjects (3%). One-way streets (p=0.13) and roundabouts (p=0.88) were perceived by both subject groups has having similar difficulty levels, while the AMD subjects reported more difficulty crossing two-way streets compared to the control subjects (p=0.04).
Conclusions :
Our data suggests that people with AMD cross one-way streets and roundabouts as often as people with normal vision, possibly because they are not perceived to be difficult tasks. However, people with AMD find crossing two-way streets difficult and consequently limit their mobility by avoiding these types of streets compared to people with normal vision.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.