[Pilot study to resolve problems of visual acuity assessment in grading vision of the physically handicapped--visual acuity and difficulties in daily life of age-related macular degeneration-].
OBJECTIVE
To resolve the problems of visual acuity assessment in grading the vision of the physically handicapped as proposed by the Subcommittee for Promoting the Realization of a Cohesive Society with the Visually Disabled, Science Council of Japan, a method suitable for assessing visual disturbances, and the relationship between the degree of visual disturbances and the degree of difficulty in activities of daily life are clarified.


METHODS
151 persons with age-related macular degeneration were studied. Examination methods for measuring visual acuity and reading performance were studied, and interviews using the daily living task dependent on vision (DLTV) questionnaire were performed. The correlations between total DLTV score and each examination method were analyzed. The median total DLTV score for each grade of visual acuity of the better eye was calculated.


RESULTS
Spearman's correlation coefficient between distance corrected visual acuity of the better eye and total DLTV score was 0.76. Median DLTV scores for visual acuities (better eye) of 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 were 65, 73.5, 62, 79 respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Visual acuity can be assessed by measuring distant corrected visual acuity of the better eye and setting the upper limit of visual disturbance at either 0.3 or 0.4.
Yuzawa
Mitsuko
M
Division of Ophthalmology, Department of Visual Sciences, Nihon University School of Medicine, Surugadai-Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. yuzawam@med.nihon-u.ac.jp
Ishibashi
Tatsuro
T
Honda
Yoshihito
Y
Kubota
Nobue
N
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D014787:Vision Tests / Q000379:methods*; D014792:Visual Acuity