Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To present further experience with the Occlusion Dose Monitors (ODMs, Simonsz et al., 1999) used by ERPAG, including aspects of handling, their acceptance by families of amblyopic patients, and means of improving the ease of operation. Methods: The ODMs (35x15x3.6mm, 2.3g), taped to the outside of the occlusion patch, measure the temperature difference between their front and back surface. By means of a questionnaire about the ODM and its use, data were collected from 17 families of children with repeated short–time use (one week every three months) and 7 families of children in whom compliance was monitored continuously for at least 6 months. ODMs were distributed by home visits every week because of the limited battery capacity. A program for quicker and easier data analysis was developed and tested in comparison to the conventional method. The convenience of the data download from ODM to computer and of data analysis was tested by 20 students, who performed these operations following the instructions of a manual. Results: According to the questionnaire, the acceptance of the ODM by children was good or very good in 79,2%, only two disliked the device. All parents from long–term registration needed less than 2 min for daily ODM handling, while 4 parents with repeated short–time use needed somewhat longer. 50% of parents considered the ODM to be slightly too large, only 20,8% found it slightly too heavy. Correspondence between the occlusion times evaluated conventionally and by the new timesaving software was over 99%. All students judged the data download and evaluation to be easy or very easy. Conclusions: At least among families participating in research projects the acceptance of the ODM was good. Handling improvement, as contributed by our study, and further technical development will enable the use of the ODMs on a larger scale.
Keywords: amblyopia • strabismus • clinical research methodology