Introduction

Geriatric Essentials

• Presbyopia is a universal age-related decrease in the ability to accommodate to near vision that is corrected with reading glasses, bifocal glasses, or contact lenses.
• Contrast sensitivity, which is the ability to distinguish extremely fine details, decreases with aging.
• Adaptation to darkness and light occurs more slowly with aging, mostly due to changes in iris muscle function and pupil size and to development of non-cataract lens opacities.
• Visual field decreases by about 1° to 3° per decade.

Aging changes ocular structure and function. Some changes are almost universal and unavoidable; an increasing inability to focus on near objects affects nearly all people as they age and is one of the first age-related changes that people experience. This and other changes can be considered normal correlates of aging, whereas others affect fewer people and are not normal.

This topic was last updated May 2005.