Effectiveness of Bates Therapy on Visual Problems Among Elderly People

The eye is the window of the human body through which it feels its way and enjoys the beauty of the world, but as age rises elderly people develop visual problems by showing the symptoms like blurred vision, visual defect, fore sight and short sight, etc, which blocks the beauty of eye sight.

Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of Bates therapy on visual problems among elderly residents.

Design: Pre-experimental design where one group pre and post test.

Setting: K.K Illam home for aged, Erode.

Participants: Elderly residents who fulfilled the inclusion criteria.

Selection Criteria: The inclusion criteria of the elderly residents Who can read three lines on snenell's chart without spectacles at a distance of 6 meters with both eyes, see superiorly 30°, laterally 50°, inferiorly 50° and medially 40° with both eyes and their Pupillary size to light 2mm for both eyes.

Methods: 38 elderly residents were selected by using consecutive sampling technique. Pre and post test assessment done by using visual acuity assessment scale and visual functioning scale to assess the visual problems.

Results: The study findings showed that 7(47%) were in the age group 60-65 and 66-70 years respectively. However 67% them were females, 60% of them had diabetes Mellitus, all (100%) had less than 20 years of visual problems, 60% of them using spectacles below 10 years and 67 % of them had twice in a year eye check up. Paired 't' test value was 12.24 in visual acuity and 11.23 in visual functioning when compared to the level of significant (p<0.05) it was high. It seems that Bates therapy on visual problems among elderly people was effective. There is no significant association between post test scores on visual problems among elderly people and their demographic variables (age, gender, associated disease conditions, duration of visual problems and duration of using spectacles).

Conclusion: Eye exercise is given to any kind of eye problems to improve vision. Therefore Bates therapy was very beneficial for elderly people to regain their eyesight back.

Clinical Practice: To prove Bates therapy, they need supportive research to be warranted. As a part of nursing care service, Bates therapy can be implemented to the clients in the hospital and community settings.