Self‐reported vision impairment, vision correction, and depressive symptoms among middle‐aged and older Chinese: Findings from the China health and retirement longitudinal study

Objective To investigate associations between vision impairment (VI), vision correction (VC) and depressive symptoms among middle‐aged and older Chinese. Methods 22 203 participants aged ≥45 years from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2011 to 2015 were divided into four self‐reported VI categories: no VI, distance VI (DVI) only, near VI (NVI) only, and both distance and near VI (DNVI); and four self‐reported VI/VC subgroups: VI(+)/VC(−), VI(+)/VC(+), VI(−)/VC(−) and VI(−)/VC(+). Depressive symptoms were evaluated by 10‐item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD‐10). Results Compared with no VI, DVI only (OR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.95, 2.31), NVI only (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.39, 1.63) and DNVI (OR = 2.75, 95% CI: 2.47, 3.07) were associated with higher odds of depressive symptoms. Compared with VI(+)/VC(−), VI(+)/VC(+) (OR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.83, 0.98), VI (−)/VC(−) (OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.48, 0.53) and VI(−)/VC(+) (OR = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.47, 0.54) were associated with lower odds of depressive symptoms. Compared with no VI at baseline, baseline DNVI was significantly associated with higher odds of depressive symptoms after two (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.16, 1.88) and four (OR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.68) years. Baseline depressive symptoms were significantly associated with higher odds of VI after two (OR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.34, 1.74) and four (OR = 1.54, 95% CI: 1.34, 1.76) years. Conclusion Adults with DNVI were more likely to report depressive symptoms in the future and those with depressive symptoms were more likely to report VI in the future. VC might be a protective factor for preventing depressive symptoms among adults with VI.