Trail Making contributes to subjective judgment of visual efficiency in older adults

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1 School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
2 The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
3 Optometry Department, College of Sciences and Health, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland
4 African Vision Research Institute, Faculty of Sciences and Health, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa
5 Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing, St. James Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.738v2
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Epidemiology, Ophthalmology, Psychiatry and Psychology
Keywords
visual search, visual acuity, self-report, ocular pathology, trail making test
Copyright
© 2015 Setti et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Setti A, Loughman J, Savva GM, Kenny R. 2015. Trail Making contributes to subjective judgment of visual efficiency in older adults. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e738v2

Abstract

Introduction: The determinant factors that influence self-reported quality of vision have yet to be fully elucidated. This study evaluated a range of contextual information, established psychophysical tests, and in particular, a series of cognitive tests as potentially novel determinant factors. Materials & Methods: Community dwelling adults (aged 50+) recruited to Wave 1 of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, excluding those registered blind, participated in this study (N=5021). Self-reports of vision were analysed in relation to visual acuity and contrast sensitivity, ocular pathology, visual (Choice Response Time task; Trail Making Test) and global cognition. Contextual factors such as having visited an optometrist and wearing glasses were also considered. Ordinal logistic regression was used to determine univariate and multivariate associations. Results and Discussion: Poor Trail Making Test performance (Odds ratio, OR= 1.36), visual acuity (OR =1.72) and ocular pathology (OR=2.25) were determinant factors for poor versus excellent vision in self-reports. Education, wealth, age, depressive symptoms and general cognitive fitness also contributed to determining self-reported vision. Conclusions: Trail Making Test contribution to self-reports may capture higher level visual processing and should be considered when using self-reports to assess vision and its role in cognitive and functional health.

Author Comment

This is a draft of a submitted paper

Supplemental Information

Table S1 - summary of literature

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.738v2/supp-1

Variables used in the study

Table 2. Ordinal Odds Ratios Representing the Effect of Potential Contributing Factors to Self- reported Vision (Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor). Participants suffering from Dementia, Parkinson’s Disease and serious memory impairment (all by self-report) were excluded from the analysis because they present cognitive impairment or neurologic illness that could influence the relationship between cognition and self-reported vision. Analyses are adjusted for clustered sample design and sampling weights.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.738v2/supp-2