Human Growth and Development / Unit 15 HGD 2110 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Eye Diseases of Late Adulthood
The idea
Three serious eye diseases become more common with age. Cataracts are cloudy areas on the lens from clumping protein, blurring vision and dulling colour; outpatient surgery treats them. Age-related macular degeneration damages the macula, the centre of the retina, blurring or removing central vision while sparing peripheral vision; it is the leading cause of severe late-life vision loss and has no cure. Glaucoma is usually raised eye pressure damaging the optic nerve, taking peripheral vision first.
In practice
One older reader who cannot see the centre of a page, and another who sees it sharply but misses people approaching from the side.
Where people slip
Only cataracts can be effectively cured in most people. Exam items describe a symptom and ask for the disease: cloudiness points to cataracts, lost central vision to macular degeneration, and tunnel vision to glaucoma. Dry eye syndrome affects about a fifth of people over eighty.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for Human Growth and Development