RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Visual impairment and multimorbidity in a representative sample of the Spanish population Keywords: Epidemiology, Chronic conditions, Multimorbidity, Visual impairment, Low vision, Mental health, Garin et al. BMC Public Health 2014, 14:815 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/815de Llobregat, Spain Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleCognitive functioning, Elderly * Correspondence: jmharo@pssjd.org 1Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de D?u, Universitat de Barcelona, Dr Antoni Pujades, 42, 08830 Barcelona, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Spain 2Fundaci? Sant Joan de D?u, Santa Rosa, 39-57, 08950 Barcelona, EspluguesNoe Garin1,2,3, Beatriz Olaya1,2,3, Elvira Lara1,3, Maria Victoria Moneta1, Marta Miret3,4, Jose Luis Ayuso-Mateos3,4,5 and Josep Maria Haro1,2,3* Abstract Background: In the context of population aging, visual impairment has emerged as a growing concern in public health. However, there is a need for further research into the relationship between visual impairment and chronic medical conditions in the elderly. The aim of our study was to examine the relationship between visual impairment and three main types of co-morbidity: chronic physical conditions (both at an independent and additive level), mental health and cognitive functioning. Methods: Data were collected from the COURAGE in Europe project, a cross-sectional study. A total of 4,583 participants from Spain were included. Diagnosis of chronic medical conditions included self-reported medical diagnosis and symptomatic algorithms. Depression and anxiety were assessed using CIDI algorithms. Visual assessment included objective distance/near visual acuity and subjective visual performance. Descriptive analyses included the whole sample (n = 4,583). Statistical analyses included participants aged over 50 years (n = 3,625; mean age = 66.45 years) since they have a significant prevalence of chronic conditions and visual impairment. Crude and adjusted binary logistic regressions were performed to identify independent associations between visual impairment and chronic medical conditions, physical multimorbidity and mental conditions. Covariates included age, gender, marital status, education level, employment status and urbanicity. Results: The number of chronic physical conditions was found to be associated with poorer results in both distance and near visual acuity [OR 1.75 (CI 1.38-2.23); OR 1.69 (CI 1.27-2.24)]. At an independent level, arthritis, stroke and diabetes were associated with poorer distance visual acuity results after adjusting for covariates [OR 1.79 (CI 1.46-2.21); OR 1.59 (CI 1.05-2.42); OR 1.27 (1.01-1.60)]. Only stroke was associated with near visual impairment [OR 3.01 (CI 1.86-4.87)]. With regard to mental health, poor subjective visual acuity was associated with depression [OR 1.61 (CI 1.14-2.27); OR 1.48 (CI 1.03-2.13)]. Both objective and subjective poor distance and near visual acuity were associated with worse cognitive functioning. Conclusions: Arthritis, stroke and the co-occurrence of various chronic physical diseases are associated with higher prevalence of visual impairment. Visual impairment is associated with higher prevalence of depression and poorer cognitive function results. There is a need to implement patient-centered care involving special visual assessment in these cases.? 2014 Garin et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. Garin et al. BMC Public Health 2014, 14:815 Page 2 of 11 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/815Background Visual impairment is related to higher morbidity, in- creased risk of falling, activity limitations, lower quality of life, poor social participation and increased mortality [1-8]. Low vision is a state of moderate or severe visual impairment defined as a visual acuity lower than 6/18 and equal to or better than 3/60 in the better eye with best correction [9]. Even though this represents signifi- cant impairment, people affected with low vision are still potentially able to perform some activities for which sight is essential. The relevance of vision to health status has led the World Health Organization to recently introduce vision and other sensory functions as health domains in the International Classification of Functioning, Disabil- ity and Health (ICF), a unified framework for a description of health that highlights the interaction between health conditions and contextual factors [10]. In industrialized countries, the main causes of low vi- sion and blindness are age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, cataracts, pathologic myopia and dia- betic retinopathy. The prevalence of all these disorders increases with age [11,12]. In fact, about 65% of people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this group only represents about 20% of the world?s population [13]. Since a 2-fold increase in the population over 60 years old is expected between 2006 and 2050, the number of people with impaired vision is expected to increase in the future [14,15]. Although some of these disorders can be treated, for instance through cataract surgery or AMD intravitreal pharmacotherapy, perman- ent functional visual impairment can appear in cases of delayed or inefficacious treatment [16]. Aging is also clearly associated with the onset of chronic physical and mental conditions and an increase in multimorbidity [17,18]. According to a recent review, between 55% and 98% of the elderly population suffer from multimorbidity [19]. Some particular associations have been identified between chronic physical conditions and vision disorders, such as diabetes and retinopathy [20]. However, there is very limited information on the relationship between visual functioning and most com- mon medical chronic conditions at both the independent and additive levels. Sensory impairment has also been linked to psychological and social problems. Mild or moderate visual impairment in adults have been found to be associated with mental distress, depression, anx- iety, suicide risk, interpersonal sensitivity and hostility [2,21-26]. Most of these studies have focused on depres- sion and little is known about the relationship between sensorial impairment and other psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety, especially in the elderly. Moreover, there is evidence of an association between visual impairment and dementia [27,28]. To date, however, research focusing specifically on the association between visual impairmentand cognitive functioning has showed mixed results [29-33]. Determining the relationship between visual impairment and chronic conditions through a compre- hensive approach might contribute to the development of optimal patient-centered care to the elderly. We used a large general population survey to examine: ? The relationship between physical multimorbidity and visual impairment in the population over 50 years old. ? The relationship between visual impairment and mental health (depression and anxiety) in the population over 50 years old. ? The relationship between visual impairment and cognitive functioning in the population over 50 years old. Methods Design The COURAGE in Europe project is a cross-sectional household survey of a representative sample of the non- institutionalized adult population conducted in Finland, Poland and Spain [34]. Data from the Spanish sample are analyzed in the current study. Sample and procedures A representative sample of the adult population in Spain was selected using a stratified multistage clustered area probability method. The target group was a community- residing population over 18 years. Three samples were selected according to age: 18?49; 50?79; ?80 years. The 50+ and 80+ subgroups were oversampled as they were the main target of the study. People with language barriers were excluded. From July 2011 to May 2012, face-to-face structured interviews were conducted through Computer- Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) at respondents? homes. The survey protocol was translated from English into Spanish according to WHO translation guidelines for assessment instruments [35]. Lay interviewers were trained before administration of the survey. Quality as- surance procedures were implemented during fieldwork [36]. The final response rate was 69.9%. The main reason for non-response was that the house was unoccupied or that the members of the household were elsewhere (sea- sonal vacancy, other residence). The interviewer judged whether the respondent had cognitive problems at the be- ginning of the interview. If cognitive difficulties were evi- dent, a short version of the survey was obtained from proxy respondents. Data from proxy respondents were not analyzed since visual assessment and diagnosis of chronic physical conditions and mental disorders were not per- formed in the proxy interviews. Therefore, once the 170 proxy respondents had been eliminated, the final analysis consisted of 4,583 participants. This sample was used Garin et al. BMC Public Health 2014, 14:815 Page 3 of 11 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/815for initial descriptive purposes. The final analysis con- sisted of 3,625 participants over 50 years old since this subgroup suffers from significant prevalence of chronic conditions and visual impairment compared with younger populations. Data collection Sociodemographic information included age, gender, marital status, education level, employment status and urbanicity. With regard to chronic physical conditions, participants were asked whether they had received life- time medical diagnosis and treatment during the previ- ous 12 months for angina, arthritis, asthma, chronic lung disease, diabetes, edentulism, hypertension and stroke. Moreover, algorithms based on clinical symp- toms were implemented to detect undiagnosed cases. These were based on the WHO?s SAGE study, current clinical guidelines and reference publications [37-43]. In the case of meeting at least one of the two previously established criteria, the respondent was considered to have angina, asthma, arthritis, chronic lung disease or stroke. Hypertension, diabetes and edentulism are asymptomatic conditions so no symptomatic algorithm was used. Previous 12-month major depressive disorder and anx- iety disorders (including Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder) were assessed with an adapted ver- sion of the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), according to DSM-IV criteria [44]. Cognitive functioning results were calculated from five performance tests in distinct domains: learning and short-term memory (word list immediate and delayed recall from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer?s Disease), attention and working memory (digit spans forward and back- ward from the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale) and language (animal naming task) [45,46]. All perform- ance tests were scored according to standard practice for each test. A global score was calculated using the sum of the standardized score on each item, with a lower score indicating worse cognitive functioning [47]. Analogous methodology for computing this score with the same tests has previously been used in the WHO?s SAGE and COURAGE studies [47,48]. In our case, we also standardized results by level of education. Results were later transformed into a binary variable for analysis purposes. Objective visual acuity was mea- sured by the interviewer with a ?tumbling E? chart [49]. To assess distance vision, an appropriate chart was placed 3 meters from the participant. Visual acuity was registered using the metric visual acuity scale, through which pa- tients were classified into one of the following groups: visual acuity less than 3/60, 3/60-6/60, 6/60-6/18 and more than 6/18. To demonstrate the visual acuity required by a line in the chart, the participant had to detect at leastthree of the four letters in the line. Distance VA was mea- sured initially for the left eye and subsequently for the right eye. Analog procedures were conducted to assess near vision, with a specific appropriate chart that was held by the participant at a comfortable distance. For near vision, participants were classified as: unable to see the lar- gest sized letter ( 65 years p (age) p (sex) n Women Men Women <0.001 0.113 8-86.1) 79.7 (75.2-83.7) 69.4 (64.3-74.0) 62.5 (57.7-67.1) 3-18.3) 17.7 (14.2-21.9) 21.9 (18.3-26.1) 25.3 (21.6-29.5) -2.9) 2.3 (1.5-3.7) 7.0 (5.1-9.4) 9.3 (7.4-11.7) -0.4) 0.2 (0.1-0.5) 1.7 (1.0-3.0) 2.8 (1.8-4.5) <0.001 <0.001 8-63.3) 53.7 (49.1-58.3) 43.0 (38.0-48.1) 33.8 (30.1-37.6) 4-41.9) 43.4 (39.2-47.8) 50.8 (46.0-55.5) 57.9 (53.6-62.1) -3.3) 2.3 (1.4-3.8) 5.1 (3.9-6.8) 5.9 (4.5-7.7) -0.8) 0.5 (0.2-1.4) 1.1 (0.5-2.4) 2.5 (1.5-4.1) <0.001 <0.001vision may be due to vascular pathology or other ocular abnormalities [58]. Rowe et al. found that up to 92% of stroke survivors have some form of visual impairment [57]. Our results support this relationship and highlight the need for visual assessment after stroke. We also found a higher odds of distance visual impairment in respon- dents with arthritis. The relationship between arthritis and vision loss is poorly understood and may also be multifac- torial. Firstly, extra-articular arthritis symptoms may in- clude uveitis, ulcerative keratitis, scleritis, severe Sj?gren syndrome and other conditions directly associated with vi- sion loss [59,60]. Moreover, medication for arthritis such as corticoids or chloroquine/hydroxicloroquine have been associated with an increased prevalence of glaucoma, cata- racts or retinopathy [61-64]. There is, however, no clear evidence on the relationship between osteoarthrosis and visual impairment. At an epidemiological level, there are few data on this issue but it has recently been suggested that there is a higher risk of eye diseases in patients with joint diseases [65]. Finally, individual odds of distance 2-92.0) 83.9 (80.4-86.8) 78.5 (74.8-81.8) 67.5 (62.8-71.9) -10.9) 12.0 (9.5-15.1) 14.1 (11.6-16.9) 17.0 (13.9-20.6) -2.5) 3.2 (2.2-4.5) 5.7 (4.2-7.6) 10.7 (8.8-13.1) -1.1) 1.0 (0.5-1.9) 1.8 (1.1-2.9) 4.7 (3.5-6.3) <0.001 0.506 5-90.6) 85.7(82.0-88.8) 81.4 (77.7-84.7) 70.5 (65.6-74.9) -11.2) 11.4 (8.7-15.0) 13.3 (10.8-16.3) 19.9 (16.4-24.1) -4.6) 2.6 (1.7-3.8) 4.4 (3.1-6.3) 7.3 (5.6-9.4) -0.9) 0.3 (0.1-0.8) 0.8 (0.4-1.7) 2.3 (1.5-3.5) sment results were related to problems: none, mild problems, moderate hown; p(age) refers to statistical differences in the three age groups; p(sex) essed as vision problems mentioned by the patient. Table 4 Association between chronic physical conditions and poor visual acuity DVA (OR) DVA (AOR) NVA (OR) NVA (AOR) Angina 1.57 (1.17-2.11) 1.12 (0.84-1.51) 1.43 (1.07-1.91) 1.07 (0.78-1.48) Asthma 1.42 (1.04-1.95) 1.02 (0.72-1.44) 1.38 (0.99-1.93) 1.04 (0.70-1.54) Hypertension 1.28 (1.08-1.52) 0.87 (0.73-1.04) 1.51 (1.23-1.78) 1.10 (0.94-1.28) Edentulism 1.70 (1.33-2.18) 1.12 (0.89-1.43) 1.74 (1.42-2.14) 1.16 (0.96-1.41) 1.0 1.4 0.7 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.3 ust 0.0 be Garin et al. BMC Public Health 2014, 14:815 Page 7 of 11 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/815visual impairment was increased in diabetic patients, as expected. However, this association was slight and was not found in the case of near visual acuity, distance subjective visual acuity and near subjective visual acuity. We hypothesize that adjusting by the time from the onset of diabetes could impact the results with diabetes but this information was not available in our study. With regard to mental health, our results show a clear association between visual impairment and depression. Although visual impairment and depression have been associated in working age adults [66], there is contro- versy on this topic in older adults [2,22,24,25,67,68]. Diabetes 1.59 (1.28-1.98) 1.27 ( Arthritis 2.30 (1.92-2.75) 1.79 ( Chronic Lung D 1.38 (0.99-1.93) 1.02 ( Stroke 1.87 (1.24-2.83) 1.59 ( Number of physical conditions 1 1.67 (1.35-2.08) 1.32 ( 2 1.95 (1.51-2.51) 1.30 ( ?3 2.83 (2.23-3.58) 1.75 ( DVA = distance visual acuity; NVA: near visual acuity; OR = Odds Ratio; AOR = Adj Note = Results with 95% Confidence interval. In bold, statistically significant (p < conditions, age, gender, educational level, marital status, and urbanicity. For num conditions, age, gender, educational level, marital status, and urbanicity.Variability in the studies arises with regard to the type of visual assessment used, including objective visual acuity, medical-record review, presence of age-related eye-disease or vision-loss severity with functional screening. Besides objective measures, the need for measures that accurately assess the degree of visual impairment experienced by the person has been highlighted [69,70]. Self-experienced vis- ual loss may be important as this could lead to disability, functional decline, and communicative and social isolation [66,71-74]. In our case, we tested both objective and sub- jective visual acuity to analyze the nature of their relation- ships with depression and other mental conditions. We Table 5 Association between poor visual acuity and variables Depression (OR) Depression (AOR) An Distance VA 1.64 (1.27-2.12) 1.25 (0.97-1.61) 0.9 Near VA 1.39 (1.01-1.93) 1.10 (0.78-1.53) 0.9 Subjective distance VA 2.80 (2.10-3.74) 1.61 (1.14-2.27) 2.1 Subjective near VA 2.40 (1.74-3.30) 1.48 (1.03-2.13) 0.4 VA = visual acuity; OR = Odds Ratio; AOR = Adjusted Odds Ratio. Note = Adjusted models included age, gender, education level, marital status, urban In bold, statistically significant (p < 0.05).found a stronger association between depression and sub- jective visual impairment, which highlights the importance of the self-perceived impairment. In fact, the Health Care Policy and Research Cataract Surgery Guidelines suggest that one important indication for cataract surgery may be the degree of functional disability rather than objective visual assessment alone [75,76]. The differing results in objective and subjective visual impairment with regard to depression could be influenced by the negative perception that these patients may have about themselves. Anxiety showed no association with visual acuity, corroborating previous studies in adults and the elderly [21,23,24,77-79]. 1-1.60) 1.22 (0.86-1.75) 1.15 (0.86-1.52) 6-2.21) 1.63 (1.33-1.98) 1.16 (0.97 -1.40) 4-1.42) 1.34 (0.90-2.02) 1.06 (0.70-1.60) 5-2.42) 3.53 (2.18-5.73) 3.01 (1.86-4.87) 7-1.63) 1.63 (1.38-1.94) 1.33 (1.13-1.57) 0-1.67) 2.06 (1.64-2.60) 1.43 (1.13-1.81) 8-2.23) 2.64 (2.00-3.48) 1.69 (1.27-2.24) ed Odds Ratio. 5). AORs are based on logistic regression model including all medical r of physical conditions, the adjusted models included number of physicalThere is, however, some controversy as higher rates of anxiety have been observed in populations with some ocu- lar conditions [2,80]. Our study adds valuable information regarding anxiety because there are relatively few studies on this subject and in most cases they did not have a clear definition of anxiety. Other less-specific variables were used, such as concern about blindness. Moreover, our study deals with objective and subjective visual impair- ment, providing a general evaluation of the impact of vis- ual performance on anxiety. The relevance of our results is reinforced by the fact that we have used the CIDI ques- tionnaire, a comprehensive, standardized interview that related to mental health and cognitive functioning xiety (OR) Anxiety (AOR) Cognition (OR) Cognition (AOR) 0 (0.47-1.71) 0.74 (0.39-1.40) 1.47 (1.17-1.86) 1.27 (1.02-1.59) 7 (0.55-1.73) 0.83 (0.43-1.64) 1.72 (1.46-2.02) 1.51 (1.28-1.85) 5 (1.14-4.04) 1.47 (0.71-3.04) 2.05 (1.44-2.90) 1.43 (1.00-2.06) 2 (0.09-1.93) 0.27 (0.05-1.36) 2.96 (1.92-4.55) 2.40 (1.52-3.71) icity and all chronic physical conditions. Results with 95% Confidence interval. Garin et al. BMC Public Health 2014, 14:815 Page 8 of 11 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/815has demonstrated particular usefulness in epidemiological and cross-cultural studies [81]. By using the CIDI, our re- sults can be compared with those of other studies using the same approach. Finally, cognitive functioning was found to be associ- ated with distance and near visual impairment, at both objective and subjective levels. The strongest relation- ship was observed in subjective near visual impairment. Mixed results have previously been found with regard to visual performance and cognitive functioning in the eld- erly population [29-33,82]. Simulated visual impairment has shown cognitive slowing in adults, especially in the elderly [83,84]. More- over, other studies have found a clear relationship be- tween visual performance and cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer?s and Parkinson?s disease [85-87]. The interaction between vision and cognition is not fully understood. On the one hand, visual loss could lead to deprivation of sensory input, leading to cerebral structural or functional changes. On the other hand, a common physiological pathway could be involved. A loss of ret- inal ganglion cells and impairment of the ventral and dorsal pathways in patients with Alzheimer?s disease has been described [85,88]. Besides the etiopathogenic impli- cations of the association between vision and cognition, this interaction should be highlighted because coexisting visual and cognitive impairment has been related to a higher risk of disability [89]. Our study has several limitations. Cross-sectional studies identify associations but do not allow cause and effect relationships to be determined. Moreover, age ef- fects may not be distinguished from cohort effects. Lon- gitudinal studies are needed to confirm these results. Multimorbidity research would benefit from standard- ized inclusion and definition of diseases [65]. In some cases, the Expanded Diagnosis Clusters adapted of the ACG? system have been used, an exhaustive method that is complex to apply outside the clinical setting and where poor integration of health care levels exists [17]. It is known that a higher number of conditions results in a higher proportion of multimorbidity [19]. For our study, the choice of chronic conditions was made ac- cording to the SAGE study, focusing on a limited num- ber of conditions that are highly prevalent in the general population and constitute major causes of disability. This methodology allows the work to be conducted across countries. Self-reported data could affect the results, al- though this would be minimal as acceptable correlation between self-reported and medical-record diagnosis has been found [90,91]. With respect to vision itself, future studies should include binocular visual acuity assessment and other visual tests such as contrast sensitivity and glare disability. Another limitation is the fact that some differ- ences could arise when using distinct subjective strategiesin the visual assessment, which could affect the results [92]. Moreover, since visual impairment becomes more frequent in advanced ages, participants in their fifties could potentially skew the results of the analyses. Con- sequently, we performed a sensitivity analysis with par- ticipants over 65 years which showed similar results compared with the results of the global sample (50 years and over). Finally, poorer results in cognitive function- ing may appear in patients with vision loss when the tests include vision tasks [93,94]. In our study, only the verbal memory tests included a reading part. However, the interviewer read the words aloud if the respondent had reading difficulties, so this bias may be minimized. Conclusion The results of our study contribute to a deeper under- standing of visual impairment and its relationship with chronic physical conditions and mental disorders. There seems to be a clear association between a higher number of co-occurring chronic physical conditions and poorer results in distance and near visual functioning. Elderly patients with multimorbidity would benefit from extra eye-care and this would also improve the efficiency of the health care system. At an independent level, suffer- ing from stroke and arthritis is highly associated with poorer results in visual functioning. The presence of these conditions could be triggers for visual impairment. With regard to mental health, poor subjective but not objective visual functioning is closely related to depres- sion, highlighting the importance of subjective perception in depression. Since poor cognition has also been related to poor visual functioning, it would be advisable to moni- tor mood and cognitive functioning in people suffering from visual disorders. Competing interests None of the authors have any proprietary interests or conflicts of interest related to this submission. This submission has not been published anywhere previously and it is not simultaneously being considered by any other publication. Authors? contributions NG: Participated in the database management, drafted the paper, carried out the statistical analyses and worked on the interpretation of data. He also gave final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. BO: Participated in the acquisition of data, database management, critical revision of the paper, and carried out the statistical analyses. She also gave final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. EL: Participated in the database management and critical revision of the paper. She also gave final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. MVM: Participated in the study design, database management, statistical support and critical revision of the paper. She also gave final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the Garin et al. BMC Public Health 2014, 14:815 Page 9 of 11 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/815work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. MM: Participated in the acquisition of data, database management and critical revision of the paper. She also gave final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. JLA: Participated in the study design, acquisition of data, interpretation of data and critical revision of the paper. He also gave final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. JMH: Participated in the study design, acquisition of data, interpretation of data and critical revision of the paper. He also gave final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Acknowledgements The research leading to these results received funding from the European Community?s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement number 223071 (COURAGE in Europe) and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (FPU12/05661). Additional support was provided by funds from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-FIS, research grants numbers PS09/00295 and PS09/01845, from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation?s ACI-Promociona (ACI2009-1010). The study was supported by the Centro de Investigaci?n Biom?dica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III. This article is part of a PhD programme developed in the Public Health Department of the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. Author details 1Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de D?u, Universitat de Barcelona, Dr Antoni Pujades, 42, 08830 Barcelona, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Spain. 2Fundaci? Sant Joan de D?u, Santa Rosa, 39-57, 08950 Barcelona, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain. 3Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Centro de Investigaci?n Biom?dica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, Monforte de Lemos 3?5. Pabell?n 11 28029 Madrid, Spain. 4Department of Psychiatry, Universidad Aut?noma de Madrid, Arzobispo Morcillo s/n 28029, Madrid, Spain. 5Instituto de Investigaci?n Sanitaria Princesa (IP), Diego de Le?n, 62, 28006 Madrid, Spain. Received: 2 April 2014 Accepted: 26 June 2014 Published: 8 August 2014 References 1. Lee DJ, G?mez-Mar?n O, Lam BL, Zheng DD, Caban A: Visual impairment and morbidity in community-residing adults: the national health interview survey 1986?1996. 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