The College of Optometrists in Vision Development checklist related to vision function: expert opinions.
BACKGROUND
The College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) Quality of Life (QOL) checklist has been reported to have good test-retest reliability. Symptom scores measured by this instrument have demonstrated validity by showing a significantly improved score with optometric vision therapy. The COVD-QOL scores inversely correlate with academic achievement on standardized tests, and the instrument has been shown to differentiate between attention deficit disorder/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder children. The individual items on the COVD-QOL have not, however, been studied as to their relationship to general areas of vision investigated by the optometric examination.


METHODS
To ascertain if COVD-QOL symptoms can be related to areas of vision function, a group of 28 practicing optometrists from all parts of the United States were surveyed for their opinions. The venue was a conference whose theme was vision therapy and the functional use of lenses and prisms. All the participants offered vision therapy within their practices. They were asked to rank 5 general areas of vision skills (orientation, ocular motor, binocular, accommodation, and perception) as to whether these areas might relate to individual symptoms contained in the COVD-QOL. A frequency distribution was developed based on these results. A Likert scale was also used to compare the specific symptom (COVD-QOL item) to the opinion of the clinicians who participated. A Likert scale assumes equal separation among the 5 levels of symptom severity.


RESULTS
Thirteen items were found to have high agreement, and 11 were considered in moderate agreement when the opinions of these experts were compared. Each of the 5 areas of vision had at least 1 item with high or moderate agreement.


CONCLUSIONS
Expert opinion is a reasonable first step in investigating symptoms as they relate to signs, but more study is needed to verify if these subjective relationships actually exist.
Maples
W C
WC
Southern College of Optometry, Memphis, Tennessee 38104, USA. maples@sco.edu
Hoenes
Richard
R
D006801:Humans; D009907:Optometry / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012952:Societies; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*