Association of Visual Impairment With Medication Adherence and Unintentional Nonadherence Behaviors in Older Adults With Chronic Diseases: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study.

Authors

Qi Shen, Xianhong Zeng, Li Yu

Published in

Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research. Volume 32. Pages e954346. Oct 18, 2026. Epub Oct 18, 2026.

Abstract

BACKGROUND Visual impairment can hinder medication self-management in older adults, but severity-specific associations with adherence across chronic disease regimens are not well characterized. MATERIAL AND METHODS This single-center cross-sectional observational study included 100 consecutive outpatients older than 60 years with at least 1 chronic disease and long-term medication use at a tertiary geriatric clinic in 2024. Data were obtained through medical-record abstraction, nurse-administered interviews, and task-based observation at the index visit. Better-eye best-corrected visual acuity was categorized as normal vision or mild, moderate, or severe visual impairment. Adherence was assessed with the Chinese 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). Study-specific unintentional nonadherence behaviors were analyzed descriptively. RESULTS Mean MMAS-8 scores declined from 7.32 (SD, 0.74) in normal vision to 6.09 (SD, 0.79), 5.21 (SD, 1.12), and 4.29 (SD, 1.52) in mild, moderate, and severe visual impairment, respectively (F=34.96, P<0.001). Conversely, low adherence increased from 3.7% in the normal-vision group to 45.0%, 71.4%, and 88.9% in the mild, moderate, and severe visual impairment groups, respectively. Adjusted odds ratios for low adherence were 3.45 (95% CI, 1.18-10.13), 8.72 (95% CI, 2.94-25.83), and 16.45 (95% CI, 4.21-64.23) for mild, moderate, and severe visual impairment versus normal vision. CONCLUSIONS Greater visual impairment severity was associated with lower adherence and more frequent exploratory indicators of unintentional medication-use difficulty. These cross-sectional, single-center findings are hypothesis-generating and require prospective validation.

PMID:
42892708
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 18 Oct 2026.

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