Prevalence and risk factors of myopic macular degeneration: the Aier-SERI high myopia adult cohort.

Purpose: To assess the prevalence and risk factors of myopic macular degeneration (MMD) in young and middle-aged individuals with high myopia in Changsha, central China.

Methods: A total of 445 adults with high myopia (worse than or equal to -5.0 D) were examined between 2021 and 2023.

Utilisation of patient-centred outcome measures in age-related macular degeneration research and clinical practice: A systematic review.

Background: To identify the utilisation, type, and psychometric properties of patient-centered outcome measures (PCOMs) associated with the performance-based assessment of visual function (VF) in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in clinical care and research.

Methods: A systematic literature search identified studies, available in English, that used PCOMs to assess VF in patients with any AMD severity, published from January 2015 to November 2023. Two researchers screened studies for quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) 2018 and assessed the psychometric properties of the PCOMs with the guidance of Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN).

Understanding the Prevalence and Risk Factor Profile of Olfactory Impairment and Its Impact on Patient Health Indicators and Economic Outcomes in Community-Dwelling Older Asian Adults.

Background And Objectives: There is a paucity of data on the prevalence, risk factors, and impact of olfactory impairment (OI) on key health indicators and economic outcomes in Asian populations. We aimed to address these gaps in a population of community-dwelling older adults.

Research Design And Methods: We included 2 101 participants (mean age ± standard deviation []: 72.

Biophysical profiling of red blood cells from thin-film blood smears using deep learning.

Microscopic inspection of thin-film blood smears is widely used to identify red blood cell (RBC) pathologies, including malaria parasitism and hemoglobinopathies, such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia. Emerging research indicates that non-pathologic changes in RBCs can also be detected in images, such as deformability and morphological changes resulting from the storage lesion. In transfusion medicine, cell deformability is a potential biomarker for the quality of donated RBCs.

Development and Validation of Performance-Based Assessment of Daily Living Tasks in Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Purpose: To establish the reliability and validity of five performance-based activities of daily living task tests (ADLTT), to correlate structure to function, to evaluate the impact of visual impairment (VI) on age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and to develop new outcome measures.

Methods: A multidisciplinary team developed five ADLTTs: (1) reading test (RT); (2) facial expression (FE) recognition; (3) item search (IS) task; (4) money counting (MC) task; and (5) making a drink (MD), tested with binocular and monocular vision. ADLTTs were tested for known-group (i.

Prevalence, associated risk factors; and patient and economic impact of multiple sensory impairment in a multi-ethnic elderly population in Singapore: the PIONEER study.

Background: To determine the prevalence, risk factors; and impact on patient health and economic outcomes across the laterality spectrum of multiple sensory impairment (MSI) in a multi-ethnic older Asian population.

Methods: In this population-based study of Singaporeans aged ≥ 60 years, MSI was defined as concomitant vision (visual acuity > 0.3 logMAR), hearing (pure-tone air conduction average > 25 dB), and olfactory (score < 12 on the Sniffin' Sticks test) impairments across the spectrum of laterality (any, unilateral, combination [of unilateral and bilateral], and bilateral).

The prevalence patterns and risk factor profiles of poor muscle health and its associated components in multiethnic older Asians: The PIONEER study.

Background: We aim to determine the multiethnic patterns of the prevalence and associated factors of poor muscle health and its associated components in older Chinese, Malays, and Indian Asian adults.

Methods: We included 2199 participants (mean age ± SD: 72.9 ± 8.

Extending the diabetic retinopathy screening intervals in Singapore: methodology and preliminary findings of a cohort study.

Background: The Diabetic Retinopathy Extended Screening Study (DRESS) aims to develop and validate a new DR/diabetic macular edema (DME) risk stratification model in patients with Type 2 diabetes (DM) to identify low-risk groups who can be safely assigned to biennial or triennial screening intervals. We describe the study methodology, participants' baseline characteristics, and preliminary DR progression rates at the first annual follow-up.

Methods: DRESS is a 3-year ongoing longitudinal study of patients with T2DM and no or mild non-proliferative DR (NPDR, non-referable) who underwent teleophthalmic screening under the Singapore integrated Diabetic Retinopathy Programme (SiDRP) at four SingHealth Polyclinics.

Establishing language and ethnic equivalence for health-related quality of life item banks and testing their efficiency via computerised adaptive testing simulations.

Purpose: We aimed to (1) establish linguistic and ethnic equivalence (i.e. lack of bias) for the items in the English and Chinese versions of the Singapore Health and Well Being (SHAWS) Physical Functioning (PF), Positive Mindset (PM) and Social Relationship (SR) item banks (IBs); and (2) evaluate the preliminary efficiency of these IBs using Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) simulations.

Efficiency, Precision, Validity, and Reliability of GlauCAT-Asian Computerized Adaptive Tests in Measuring Glaucoma-Related Quality of Life.

Purpose: To determine the efficiency, precision, and agreement of GlauCAT-Asian and its corresponding validity and reliability.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 219 participants (mean ± standard deviation age, 66.59 ± 8.

Segregation of neuronal and vascular retinal damage in patients with hypertension and diabetes.

This study aimed to examine the impact of diabetes and hypertension on retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness components. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) measurements do not consider blood vessel contribution, which this study addressed. We hypothesized that diabetes and/or hypertension would lead to thinner RNFL versus controls due to the vascular component.

Segmenting Cardiac Ultrasound Videos Using Self-Supervised Learning.

Deep learning models trained with an insufficient volume of data can often fail to generalize between different equipment, clinics, and clinicians or fail to achieve acceptable performance. We improve cardiac ultrasound segmentation models using unlabeled data to learn recurrent anatomical representations via self-supervision. In addition, we leverage supervised local contrastive learning on sparse labels to improve the segmentation and reduce the need for large amounts of dense pixel-level supervisory annotations.

Individual and combined associations of sarcopenia, osteoporosis and obesity with frailty in a multi-ethnic asian older adult population.

Background: We explored the relationships between sarcopenia (SP), osteoporosis (OP), obesity (OB), (alone and in combination) with physical frailty (PF) in a multi-ethnic, population-based study of Asians aged ≥ 60 years.

Methods: Participants were enrolled from the PopulatION HEalth and Eye Disease PRofile in Elderly Singaporeans Study (PIONEER) study. PF was defined using the modified Fried phenotype; SP using the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019; OP using bone mineral density scores; and OB using the fat mass index.

Synergistic Impact of Visual and Cognitive Impairments on Health-Related Quality of Life in a Multiethnic Asian Population.

Introduction: The concomitant impact of visual impairment (VI) and cognitive impairment (CI) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older adults is unclear. We aimed to determine the synergistic effect of baseline VI and CI on HRQoL decline at 6 years in multiethnic Asians.

Methods: We included Chinese, Malay, and Indian adults aged ≥60 years who participated in baseline (2004-2011) and 6-year (2011-2017) follow-up visits of the Singapore Epidemiology of Eye Diseases Study, a population-based cohort study in Singapore.

The Impact of Hearing Impairment on Health Indicators in a Multiethnic Population of Older Adults in Singapore.

Background And Objectives: To determine the impact of hearing impairment (HI) on health indicators in a multiethnic Singaporean population of older adults.

Research Design And Methods: In this cross-sectional, population-based study, pure-tone averages of air-conduction thresholds at 500 Hz, 1,000 Hz, 2,000 Hz, and 4,000 Hz were calculated for each ear. Eight categories of HI were defined ranging from: 1: No HI to 8: Bilateral severe HI.

Measuring Quality of Life in Diabetic Retinal Disease: A Narrative Review of Available Patient-Reported Outcome Measures.

Topic: Several patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are available to measure health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with late-stage clinical diabetic retinal diseases (DRDs). However, an understanding of the psychometric properties of PROMs is needed to assess how they could relate to severity levels of a revised DRD grading system. This narrative review assessed the available generic-, vision-, and DRD-related PROMs used in DRD research and highlights areas for improvement.

Evaluating the outcome of screening for glaucoma using colour fundus photography-based referral criteria in a teleophthalmology screening programme for diabetic retinopathy.

Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of glaucoma screening using glaucoma suspect (GS) referral criteria assessed on colour fundus photographs in Singapore's Integrated Diabetic Retinopathy Programme (SiDRP).

Methods: A case-control study. This study included diabetic subjects who were referred from SiDRP with and without GS between January 2017 and December 2018 and reviewed at Singapore National Eye Centre.

Content development of the VISION-Cog: a novel tool to assess cognitive impairment in visually impaired older adults in Singapore.

Objectives: Current cognitive screening and diagnostic instruments rely on visually dependent tasks and are, therefore, not suitable to assess cognitive impairment (CI) in visually impaired older adults. We describe the content development of the VISually Independent test battery Of NeuroCOGnition (VISION-Cog)-a new diagnostic tool to evaluate CI in visually impaired older Singaporean adults.

Design: The content development phase consisted of two iterative stages: a neuropsychological consultation and literature review (stage 1) and an expert-panel discussion (stage 2).

Awareness and attitudes of elderly Southeast Asian adults towards telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study.

Introduction: We aimed to understand the awareness and attitudes of elderly Southeast Asians towards telehealth services during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in this study.

Methods: In this qualitative study, 78 individuals from Singapore (51.3% female, mean age 73.

Monocular and Binocular Visual Function Assessments and Activities of Daily Living Performance in Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between specific monocular and binocular visual function (VF) assessments with binocularly performed activities of daily living task tests (ADLTTs) in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and healthy controls.

Design: Prospective case-control cohort study.

Subjects: Thirty-six AMD patients and 36 controls.

Neurovascular segregation of the retinal nerve fiber layer in glaucoma.

The imaging data of one eye from 154 healthy and 143 glaucoma participants were acquired to evaluate the contributions of the neuronal and vascular components within the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) for detecting glaucoma and modeling visual field loss through the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography. The neuronal and vascular components within the circumpapillary RNFL were independently evaluated. In healthy eyes, the neuronal component showed a stronger association with age (r = -0.