Abstract
Purpose: :
To determine whether successful treatment of Convergence Insufficiency (CI) has an impact on parents’ perceptions of the frequency of problem behaviors that their child may exhibit when reading or performing school work (such as: difficulty completing work, avoidance, and inattention) and parental concern about academic performance as measured by the Academic Behavior Survey (ABS).
Methods: :
The ABS was administered at baseline and after 12 weeks of treatment to the parents of 218 children ages 9-17 years with symptomatic CI, who were enrolled in the Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial and randomized into one of four treatment groups. The ABS is a 6-item survey that quantifies the frequency of observed behaviors and parental concern on an ordinal scale from 0 (never) to 4 (always) with a total score ranging from 0 to 24. Participants were classified as successful (n=42), improved (n=60), or non-responder (n=116) at the completion of 12 weeks of treatment using a composite measure of the CI Symptom Survey, near point of convergence, and positive fusional vergence. Analysis of covariance methods were used to compare the mean change in ABS between the groups while controlling for the ABS score at baseline.
Results: :
The mean ABS score for the entire group at baseline was 12.85 (SD=6.3). The mean ABS score decreased in those categorized as successful, improved, and non-responder by 4.0, 2.9, and 1.3 points respectively. The improvement in the ABS score was significantly related to treatment outcome (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: :
Improvements in the signs and symptoms of CI after treatment were associated with a reduction in the frequency of problem behaviors associated with reading and school work as reported by parents on the ABS.
Clinical Trial: :
www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT00347945
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: treatment/prevention assessment/controlled clinical trials • vergence • binocular vision/stereopsis