Abstract
Purpose :
Improvements in technology have made it possible for presbyopic patients to see at multiple focal distances with both spectacles and contact lenses. A recent study in non-presbyopic patients demonstrated that patients perform better on hand-eye coordination tasks when wearing contact lenses than when wearing spectacles. The purpose of this study was to assess the hand-eye coordination of presbyopic subjects when wearing progressive addition lens (PAL) spectacles and when wearing multifocal soft contact lenses (MCL).
Methods :
18 presbyopic existing PAL spectacle wearers with a minimum add power of +1.25D were consented and completed testing. An Acuvision 1000 board (AcuVision Systems, Carlsbad CA) was hung on the wall at eye height. Subjects stood in front of the device and were instructed to reach out and depress lights on the AcuVision when these lights were illuminated. Lights were presented in random central and peripheral locations. 0.80s was allotted to respond to the light. If the light was depressed in the first 0.56s of the allotted time it was correct. If the light was depressed in the last 0.24s of the allotted time it was late. The next light in the sequence was illuminated when the allotted time for the current light ran out (missed response), or as soon as the subject depressed a light. A practice trial was performed (30 lights), followed by the test trial (120 lights). Subjects were then fit with multifocal contact lenses (Dailies Total1 Multifocal, Alcon, Ft. Worth, TX) and wore the final prescription lenses successfully for 2 weeks before repeating the hand-eye coordination testing.
Results :
Analyzable data were obtained for 17 subjects. In all comparisons of performance (paired t-test with the Bonferroni correction (p=0.017)), MCL and PAL scores were not statistically different. Comparisons which approached statistical significance all favored MCL, with more correct responses overall [MCL (20.65±12.99) vs PAL(16.29±10.53) (P=0.055)], less missed responses in the central field [MCL (14.88±10.42) vs PAL(18.18±9.25) (P=0.041)], and more correct responses in the peripheral field [MCL (10.35±6.68) vs PAL(7.76±5.8) (P=0.033)].
Conclusions :
Hand-eye coordination performance with multifocal contact lenses was equal to that with PAL spectacles. In cases where statistical comparisons approached significance, performance with multifocal contact lenses was better than that with PAL spectacles.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.