Fotograf: Inge Johansson, Halmstad
Avhandling
Being on the trail of ageing. Functional visual ability and risk of falling
in an increasingly ageing population. (Jeanette Källstrand Eriksson)
Being on the trail of ageing
Functional visual ability and risk of falling in an
increasingly ageing population.
JEANETTE KÄLLSTRAND ERIKSSON
Medical Science with a specialization in Healthcare Sciences
Örebro Studies in Care Sciences 56 I
ÖREBRO 20142014
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jeanette källstrand eriksson is an ophthalmic
nurse with experience both from ophthalmic care at an eye department and many years of internal medicine nursing in a Swedish county hospital. She has also managed a fall prevention project in the same county hospital. Since 2007 she teaches nursing at Halmstad University where she star-ted an ophthalmic nursing specialization program in 2008. The main focus on her research is falls and its relation to visual ability in the elderly population. The overall aim of this thesis was to describe and explore vision and falls of inpatients and independently living elderly in the community and how daily life activities were influenced by visual ability and risk of falling. The findings show that a majority of elderly inpa-tients at a county hospital who fell also had an established visual impairment. Regarding independently living elderly from the same county associations were found between perceived visual impairment and falls. In the same population no significant associations were found between performance-based visual impairment and falls. In spite of these results visually impaired elderly did not consider risk of falling as a problem. Their main concern was to remain themselves as who they used to be. This was resolved by self- preservation through maintaining their residual selves and resisting self-decay. Ways of maintaining their residual selves were by living in the past mostly driven by inertia while resisting self-decay was a proactive and purposely driven strategy. Therefore performing fall risk assessments may be considered a complex is-sue for healthcare providers such as nurses, where the individual’s entire life situation has to be taken into consideration.
issn 1652-1153 isbn 978-91-7529-018-8
