Abstract
Purpose :
Assessing the ocular health and the impact of disease on visual function.
Evaluating the functional status of low vision patients
Acceptance of low vision intervention and devices, taking into account the patient’s special vision demands, needs and adjustment to vision loss
Methods :
In our prospective study, 100 low vision patients were assessed at a tertiary eye hospital in India.The study was done to know the demographic status and presentation of the impact of disease on visual function. The functional status was evaluated through clinical and functional low vision assessment. The prescription and acceptance of low vision devices were done for distance and near, taking into account the patient’s special vision demands, needs and adjustment to vision loss.
Results :
Mean age of our study population was 52.85 years (SD = 26.24). The maximum number of patients was in the age group 71-80 years (23 patients, 23%).
Retinal disorders comprised the most common cause of low vision in our study group affecting 61 patients (61 %) out of the total 100 low vision patients. Specifically, Age related macular degeneration was the most common cause of low vision in our study group – 24 patients (24%)
Conclusions :
We can conclude that congenital conditions like hereditary macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa are significant causes of low vision in the paediatric age group while age related conditions like Age related macular degeneration are significant causes of low vision in the age group 71-80 yrs in our study. Retinal disorders comprised the most common cause of low vision in our study group affecting 61%. Distance vision improved by refractive correction (48%) and an accurate refraction can help the patient to improve the reading skills for day to day work. Even though telescopes are absolute vision enhancers,many patients did not purchase LVD prescribed due to cost factor and cosmesis. In our study, it was seen that 34 patients improved to 0.8 M after using low vision aid for near. Overall 42 patients were prescribed spectacle magnifiers of various powers (ranging from 5 D to 20 D) for near vision. (24%) were prescribed dome magnifiers. We observed that the majority of low vision patients- 72 patients (72%) had good acceptance with low vision device prescribed to them. Thus, we can conclude that majority of low vision patients had good acceptance to the LVD prescribed as it improved the reading and writing skills.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.