Survivorship among the Aged Blind

Abstract

A follow-up study of 11,732 persons first registered as legally blind in Massachusetts during the twenty-year period, 1940-1959, was conducted in order to determine survivorship patterns and causes of death among the blind. This paper reports findings for 5,976 blind persons who were sixty-five years of age or older at the time of registration. Life-expectancy values calculated for single years of age from sixty-five to ninety showed that blind males had lower values than the general population over most of this age range; differences in life-expectancy were roughly two years for ages sixty-five to seventy-two, about one year for ages seventy-three to seventy-nine, and essentially no difference for ages eighty to ninety. The pattern for females was very similar to that for males. The largest differences according to major causes of blindness were for diabetes with blind males age sixty-five and over having an observed life-expectancy almost four years less than expected, and blind females age sixty-five and over having a life-expectancy 4.8 years less than expected. For blind males as well as for blind females age sixty-five and over, excess mortality due to diabetes was particularly noted.