A multidisciplinary group of researchers based at the University of California, San Diego is looking to investigate falls in older adults suffering from a chronic eye disease such as glaucoma. They’ve been using virtual reality technology to develop a new method for measuring balance control, and demonstrate that VR provides a more realistic testing environment compared to traditional testing methods. The results of the study was published online in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology,

People with glaucoma have a more than three times greater risk of falling than those without the condition. Yet, research to date has shown only a weak correlation between results obtained by visual field testing and risk of falls in glaucoma patients.

The team of ophthalmologists, vision scientists and engineers studied 42 patients with open-angle glaucoma and 38 healthy subjects as a control group. The subjects used Oculus Rift stereoscopic goggles that can simulate different settings while standing on a force platform, which can measure balance and movement.

During simulated movement, researchers found that participants made balance adjustments that were an average of 30 to 40 percent more pronounced in glaucoma patients than in healthy subjects, who were able to regain balance more quickly than those with glaucoma. The study authors suspect that this may related to the loss of retinal ganglion cells caused by glaucoma, which leads to slower visual processing and impaired motion perception.

With VR, ophthalmologists may be able to better understand the relationship between risk of falls and retinal ganglion cell loss in people with glaucoma.The study also found that the degree to which balance was lost was strongly linked to a history of falls. The researchers hope that future studies using this paradigm will help ophthalmologists better understand the relationship between risk of falls and retinal ganglion cell loss in people with glaucoma.

“With further refinement of this method, we hope that the approach could one day be used to identify patients at high-risk of falling so that preventative measures can be employed at an earlier stage,” explained Felipe A. Medeiros, M.D., senior author and professor of ophthalmology and director of the Visual Performance Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego.

Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, affecting more than 2.7 million individuals aged 40 and older in the United States.