Background: The ageing population is the most important medical and social demographic challenge worldwide.Remarkably, bodily changes caused by age are considered as both normal and inevitable, for exampleimpaired vision. All senses are of importance, but vision is crucial for older people, perceiving thesurroundings and registering the position of the body in relation to the environment.

Deterioration of the vision often occurs during a longer period and therefore it may be difficult for anindividual to perceive changes. Since uncorrected refractive errors are the leading cause of impairedvision worldwide, deteriorating vision remains undetected even if vision correction such as glasses andcataract surgery or assistive devices are available.

In order to meet the challenge with an increasing aging population, strategies and properly targetedresources are required regarding eye-health. A collaborative project within the framework of Interreg(EU), Oupdaged Synstab (undetected vision loss), is initiated by Zealand University Hospital (Denmark)with Halmstad University (Sweden) as a partner.

Aim: To examine the extent of undetected vision loss in people 75 years and older, and how older peopleperceive their vision in daily life.

Methods: In Sweden people 75 years and older visiting a regional healthcare central or an optician in a city centerare invited to participate. Collecting baseline data is ongoing: distance and near vision, contrastsensitivity and the retina (photo). A visual function questionnaire (VFQ -25) investigating vision-targeted,health-related quality of life are performed. After six and 12 months the participants receive a follow-upcall answering the VFQ-25 again. In-depth interviews about daily life having a vison loss will take placewith 25-30 participants. Methods used for analyzing are statistical and qualitative content analysis.

Results: This project contributes with valuable knowledge about the extent of undetected vision loss and howolder persons perceive their vision in relation to daily life activities. Preliminary results from baselineassessments are to be presented at the conference.

Conclusion: The results will be used to design targeted interventions to identify older persons with undetected visionloss early to facilitate healthy aging and reduce the risks for injury.