Abstract
Purpose :
In older adults, the prevalence of uncorrected refractive errors (URE) and the visual acuity (VA) gain brought by an optimal optical correction have been rarely estimated according to the presence of age-related eye disease. This study aimed at estimating the visual acuity gain brought by the optimal optical correction according to the presence of eye disease
Methods :
Alienor is a population-based cohort on age-related eye diseases in older adults residents of Bordeaux, France. Eye examinations were performed at the Bordeaux hospital or at-home for participants who were unable to come to the hospital. Examinations included measures of visual acuity, refraction and retinal photographs (macula and optic nerve). In addition, at the hospital, slit lamp examinations and SD-OCT examination of the macula and the optic nerve were performed. Presenting and best-corrected monocular distance visual acuity were evaluated using the ETDRS at 4 meters and were scored as the total number of letters read correctly. Best correction was assessed using objective and subjective refraction. Uncorrected Refractive Error (URE) was defined as presenting distance visual acuity in the better-seeing eye improved by ≥5 letters using the best correction. The visual acuity gain was defined as the difference between the best-corrected and presenting distance visual acuity
Results :
Of 707 participants (mean age: 84.2y), 216 had no eye disease, 235 had a retinal pathology or glaucoma, 36 had cataract and 197 had been seen at home with a missing diagnosis of eye disease. In the population, the prevalence of URE was 38.8% (95%CI: 35.2-42.4) and the median VA gain was 3 ETDRS letters (interquartile range [IQR], 1-6). URE were estimated at 29.6% in participants with no eye disease with a median VA gain estimated at 2 ETDRS letters (IQR, 0.5-5), 38.3% (95%CI: 32.1-44.5) in those with retinal pathology or glaucoma with a median VA gain estimated at 3 ETDRS letters (IQR, 1-6), 44.4% (95%CI: 28.2-60.7) in those with cataract with a median VA gain estimated at 4 ETDRS letters (IQR, 1-7) and at 48.7% (95%CI: 41.8-55.7) in participants seen at home with a median VA gain estimated at 4 ETDRS letters (IQR, 1-8)
Conclusions :
Our results showed that a high proportion of visual impairment could be improved by the use of optimal refractive correction for distance visual acuity even in people with eye diseases
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.