Abstract
Purpose :
The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the current literature on the modern low-vision devices and rehabilitation programs available for children including costs, efficacy, increase in quality of life, and ease of use.
Methods :
The Ovid platform was used to conduct a literature search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and Cochrane databases. Conferences including the Canadian Ophthalmological Society, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and the European Society of Ophthalmology were also searched for relevant posters. Lastly, the Web of Science and ProQuest databases were searched for unpublished, ongoing or cancelled studies. These searches included keywords for low vision, low vision devices, low vision rehabilitation, and the specific types of devices and programs available, such as magnifiers, large-print texts, and MS word. The search was limited to publications after August 1, 2013, and the final search was conducted on July 24, 2019. Studies were screened by two independent reviewers. Covidence software was used to conduct the systematic review. Quality check of the included articles was done using modified Downs and Black checklist. Data was extracted from included articles. STATA 15.0 was used to do the meta-analysis.
Results :
There were 1,232 number of hits from various databases, including grey literature. Three-levels of screening was conducted. Fifty-five articles were screened for full text. Four were included for meta-analysis. Our results indicated a significant improvement in reading speed due to low-vision aid (SMD = 1.17; CI:[0.70, 1.65]). On the other hand, results showed a non-significant improvement in reading speed due to low-vision care (SMD = 0.89; CI:[0.70, 1.65]), , conventional low-vision device (SMD = 0.65; CI:[-0.12, 1.41]), and iPad use (SMD = 0.03; CI:[-0.71, 0.77]).
Conclusions :
Our study results showed improvement in reading speed with the use of low-vision device in children with low-vision. However, excellent quality prospective randomized controlled trials are required to make strong conclusions.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.