Most older people experience declines in vision and hearing with age.
The ultimate goal is to identify intervention strategies to prevent these diseases, delay progression or lessen the consequences of the disorders. I am particularly interested in the roles of sunlight exposure, pigmentary differences and ethnicity in the development of ocular disorders. While sunlight exposure is ubiquitous, people with high levels of exposure may be at risk for cataract or age-related maculopathy because of the potentially harmful effects of radiant energy. I am currently studying these questions using data from the Beaver Dam Eye Study and a population-based study in southern Colorado. While hearing loss is one of the most common chronic disorders affecting people over 65 years of age, there have been few studies of the epidemiology of hearing loss.