The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal Watch, and more from the Massachusetts Medical Society T ake a piece of plastic wrap, fold it into five thicknesses, and look through. You'll find it difficult to read, impossible to drive, and challenging to find almost anything, including the face of a friend. This is low vision.
Low vision is a problem of growing magnitude and gravity.
As the population ages, the number of Americans with significant visual problems is growing. All major causes of low vision are conditions that primarily affect older people. Even normal aging may bring about changes in visual functions such as adaptation to the dark. Macular degeneration, however, has only recently been recognized as a widespread cause of low vision, with some 2.5 million new cases each year. The cause of macular degeneration is unknown.