Cognitive impairment is one of the most common problems of aging, which affects the quality of life, interpersonal and social relationships of patients. According to some studies, most elderly people have a dual problem with cognitive impairment and visual impairment. The aim of this study was to compare visual and non-visual related tests in the diagnosis of cognitive impairment in low vision and healthy elderly people.

In this descriptive / analytic study, among the patients referred to the Ophthalmology Department of Farshchian Hospital in Hamadan, 30 patients with low vision and 30 healthy people were selected by simple sampling method. Both groups were evaluated and compared for cognitive impairment with MMSE, Wechsler, PASAT, and clock drawing test.

The total number of investigated people was 60, 30 patients with low vision and 30 healthy eyesight (control). The case and control groups were matched in term of age and sex. There was no statistically significant difference between the elderly and the control group for the mean scores of Wechsler, MMSE and PASAT cognitive tests (P >0.05). There was a statistically significant correlation between clock drawing test score and Wechsler, MMSE and PASAT scores (P <0.05). There was reverse and significant correlation between the clock drawing test with age and literacy. Clock drawing test in compare with MMSE to screening for elderly cognitive impairment has more than 90% sensitivity.

Regarding the results obtained in this study, The clock drawing test in the diagnosis of cognitive impairment in low vision and healthy elderly people has a high sensitivity and the results are consistent with other non-visual tests. But age and literacy are variables affect its results.