Age-related eye disease, visual impairment, and driving in the elderly.

As people age, a number of visual functions such as acuity, visual field, and night vision deteriorate. This decline in vision is associated in part with an increase in vehicular accidents per mile driven by the elderly. Four age-related ocular conditions--cataract, macular degeneration, open-angle glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy--are primarily responsible for the decline in visual acuity and visual field in the elderly. Few epidemiologic data are available about these diseases, and at present they cannot be prevented. There is need for more information about visual decline and how it affects driving performance and for development of pragmatic approaches for detecting and assessing the elderly driver with functional visual deficits.