A survey of visual function in an Austrian population of school-age children with reading and writing difficulties

BMC Ophthalmology

Research Article

Julie F McClelland¹  Wolfgang Dusek¹  Barbara K Pierscionek¹ 

[1] Vision Science Research Group, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, BT52 1SA, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, UK;

关键词: Refractive Error;    Reading Speed;    Binocular Vision;    Prism Dioptre;    Distance Visual Acuity;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2415-10-16

 received in 2009-11-11, accepted in 2010-05-25,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundTo describe and compare visual function measures of two groups of school age children (6-14 years of age) attending a specialist eyecare practice in Austria; one group referred to the practice from educational assessment centres diagnosed with reading and writing difficulties and the other, a clinical age-matched control group.MethodsRetrospective clinical data from one group of subjects with reading difficulties (n = 825) and a clinical control group of subjects (n = 328) were examined.Statistical analysis was performed to determine whether any differences existed between visual function measures from each group (refractive error, visual acuity, binocular status, accommodative function and reading speed and accuracy).ResultsStatistical analysis using one way ANOVA demonstrated no differences between the two groups in terms of refractive error and the size or direction of heterophoria at distance (p > 0.05). Using predominately one way ANOVA and chi-square analyses, those subjects in the referred group were statistically more likely to have poorer distance visual acuity, an exophoric deviation at near, a lower amplitude of accommodation, reduced accommodative facility, reduced vergence facility, a reduced near point of convergence, a lower AC/A ratio and a slower reading speed than those in the clinical control group (p < 0.05).ConclusionsThis study highlights the high proportions of visual function anomalies in a group of children with reading difficulties in an Austrian population. It confirms the importance of a full assessment of binocular visual status in order to detect and remedy these deficits in order to prevent the visual problems continuing to impact upon educational development.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Dusek et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.