Consequences of glaucoma on activities of daily living: Evaluation in an artificial street

Abstract

Purpose : To determine the impact of glaucoma on patient’s ability to perform activities of daily living.

Methods : Twenty-three glaucoma patients and eight age-matched control subjects were included. All glaucoma patients had a best corrected visual acuity greater than 20/30. Best corrected visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, monocular automated Humphrey 24-2 visual field test (Zeiss-Humphrey Systems, Dublin, CA), and Esterman binocular visual field test were obtained from all subjects. Two tasks of daily living were evaluated: (1) Mobility performance was assessed in an artificial street (StreetLab®) by the time required to complete an established travel path (TP) and the number of mobility incidents (MI); (2) Reaching-and-Grasping performance was evaluated on a kitchen worktop in the HomeLab®. The movement onset time (MO) and the overall movement time (OM) for reaching-and-grasping the object were recorded. Trials were carried out with three lighting conditions: scotopic 2 lux, photopic 250 lux and photopic 1500 lux.

Results : Glaucoma patients completed the travel path 8.8% more slowly than control (TP time delay: 1.03 sec, p=0.013). Low light condition decreased mobility performance for all subjects (p<0.01). The influence of light condition was not different between the glaucoma and control group (p=0.16). The number of MI was not different between both groups (p=0.65). There was no difference in average MO time between the two groups (p=0,086) but glaucoma patients had a significantly longer OM time as compared to control subjects (OM delay: 151 ms, p<0.01). Low light condition increased the MO time by 4 to 20% (1.057 ± 0.05 sec; 1.217 ± 0.07 sec) for all subjects without difference between the two groups.

Conclusions : Glaucoma patients had decreased performance in mobility and motor control tasks. The influence of glaucoma on patient’s ability to perform activities of daily living is poorly assessed by conventional clinical test.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.