Statistical screening for the analysis of adult and elderly people optometry visual behaviour MIHAELA BARITZ 1 , LUCIANA CRISTEA 1 , DIANA COTOROS 2 , LILIANA ROGOZEA 3 1 Fine Mechanics and Mechatronics Department 2 Mechanics Department 3 Fundamental and Prophylactic Medicine Department University TRANSILVANIA of Brasov Address: B-ul Eroilor nr.29, Brasov 500036 ROMANIA mbaritz@unitbv.ro , http://www.unitbv.ro Abstract: - This paper presents some considerations about a methodology used to investigate and to analyze the optometry visual behaviour of elderly people considering different environmental conditions and health state. For that we had established some promoting campaigns for screening the visual function of elderly and adult people, and at the same time making investigations on the thermal behaviour of human bodies to correlate these results with vision impairments found on this investigated sample. In the first part of the paper we presented some considerations about the actual prevalence of vision impairments in different European countries. The experimental configuration, the structure of investigation methodology and the problems developed in screening process are presented in the second part of the paper. The results and the conclusions about the prevalence of vision impairments and the correlation between these and thermal behaviour are presented in the final part of the paper. It is very important to make such screenings because there are many implications in daily life or working abilities for different people, also it is necessary to evaluate the evolution of human visual function. Key-Words: - Visual function screening, elderly people, thermal behaviour. 1 Introduction At the beginning of the 20-th century, the life expectancy for males was 45.7 and respectively females 49.6 years and by the year 2000, this had increased to 75 and 79.9 years, that means an average increase of about 30 years in 100 years. Other statistics show that since 1840, life expectancy has improved by a quarter of a year every year and it is predicted that the process will continue. This inevitably will impact on the people lifestyle, healthcare professions and it has been predicted that new optometry specialists will spend almost 75% of their working time with people over the age of 65 [1]. Other study, assessed trends in Germany, Japan, Sweden and the United States, and concluded that in all these countries, the average age of retirement had declined, but, in addition, it found that the number of years of life expectancy at retirement age has increased between 3.9 and 5.8 years for men and between 4.3 and 6.9 years for women. This statistical study is very important to understand the impact of increasing the number of retired people and also the increasing of the people over 75-80 years. In the investigation process or screening process of the elderly population, an optometrist need to adopt new strategies because they are not members of the working population, they have special needs and they are patient, not conform to any category. Visual impairments are common and potentially very important and serious problems among older people and for that personal safety may be compromised; the risk of falling is increased and the incidence of different visual pathology is at a very high level. Other problem is the ratio for fatal car crashes in the elderly, which is lower in countries where vision testing is required for persons over 65 than in states where it is not required. One small study of patients attending a geriatric day care centre showed that one third had unrecognized severe visual loss. Surveys have revealed that up to 25% of older people are wearing inappropriate visual correction and have serious visual problems. The most common causes of visual impairment in the elderly include presbyopia, cataract, age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), and Proceedings of the 8th WSEAS Int. Conf. on ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING & DATA BASES (AIKED '09) ISSN: 1790-5109 527 ISBN: 978-960-474-051-2