A small study shows that poor lightingcould be one of the reasons why older people who suffer with glaucoma, have more problems with their vision at home than when they have an eye test in a clinic.

What do we know already?

Most of us would expect our eyesight to be as good at home as it is when we go to the opticians to have our eyes tested. However, in some recent studies, people have been reporting that they have more sight difficulties in their daily lives than that of what their sight tests results show. For people with eye conditions like glaucoma, this can have a huge impact on how their condition is managed. Glaucoma causes an increase in the pressure inside the eye, which damages the optic nerve behind the eye. This can lead to poor eyesight in one or both eyes. Doctors recommend that anyone who suffers from glaucoma to have regular eye tests, so that any problems can be picked up and treated before it has an impact on their vision. Accurate eye tests will help doctors to spot and treat any vision problems early on.

What does the study say?

People who both suffered with and without glaucoma had seen worse results on their eye sight when they were home doing the sight test as opposed to when they had the test done in the clinic. The difference may be down to lamps, with most people’s home having a lower lighting than in the clinic. On average, the homes of people suffering with glaucoma had lighting which was 3-4 times lower than the recommended for clear vision. People who had low lighting in their homes had both poorer nearer and distant vision, more sensitive to contrast and more affected by glare. The link between vision and lighting remained regardless of how sever people’s glaucoma was.

How reliable is the study?

This is only a small study, and larger studies will need to be carried out in order to record people’s vision and how It is affected over a longer period of time, in order to be certain that the findings are genuine.