Adding to the body of research connecting dementia to vision loss, a recent US study suggests as many as 1 in 5 cases of dementia in the elderly could be attributed to vision impairment.

The study, published in JAMA Ophthalmology, found up to 19% of dementia cases could be attributable to one or more types of vision loss. Researchers noted dementia could have been prevented in nearly 20% of cases, had loss of vision been addressed.

“While not proving a cause-and-effect relationship, these findings support inclusion of multiple objective measures of vision impairments, including contrast sensitivity and visual acuity, to capture the total potential impact of addressing vision impairment on dementia,” they concluded.