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13.1. Overview and Key Messages
• Sensory impairment can be a significant life limiting condition and its incidence increases with age. This means the challenges associated with the condition are likely to grow over coming decades
• Theconditionincludessightloss,hearingloss,anddualsensoryloss(deafblind).
• Acceleratingfactorsinrelationtosightlossincludediabetesandobesity
• People with sensory impairment have a range of care and support needs.
Early identification is vital, as is prevention, support to reduce loneliness, isolation and
promote mental health and wellbeing and measures to support access to employment
• Effective care and support is likely to reduce other risks associated with age and
frailty, such as falls
• ArangeofservicesareavailableacrossWestWales.Theseprovideafoundationfor
improvement in the future
• Improvements need to focus on further development of generic and specialist
services and improving access to other services for people with a sensory impairment. This will require collaborative approaches to ensure consistency and that common challenges are addressed
13.2. Demographics and Trends
Sensory impairment includes sight loss, hearing loss and dual sensory loss (a condition also referred to as ‘deaf blind’). Incidence of sensory impairment across these categories primarily affects older age groups, although there are other significant groups within the population that are susceptible particularly to sight loss and genetic conditions and injury can also give rise to a range of sensory impairment.
The prevalence in West Wales of each of these three conditions is examined below.
Sight Loss
The charts below provide numbers of adults predicted to have visual impairment in each part of the region, in 2015 and 2030. These are based on generic forecasting and demonstrate that, whilst the proportion of younger people affected is very small, people are more likely to suffer sight-related conditions as they grow older. Forecasting predicts that:
• Approximately 0.06% of adults between the ages of 18 and 64 will have a severe visual impairment
• Moderateorseverevisualimpairmentwillbeexperiencedbyaround5.6%ofolder adults aged between 65 and 74
• Around 12% of people aged 75 and over will have a moderate or severe visual impairment
• Approximately6.4%ofpeopleaged75andoverwillhaveregisterableeyeconditions
West Wales Population Assessment March 2017 Sensory impairment