Patients with AMD use computers more efficiently with auditory, tactile feedback

Patients with age-related macular degeneration substantially improved their performance times on computerized "drag and drop" tasks when assisted by auditory and tactile feedback, a study found.

Ingrid U. Scott, MD, MPD, and colleagues at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania tested 30 patients with AMD and 29 age-matched control patients with no known eye disease using timed computerized drag-and-drop tests. Patients completed the tests under four possible conditions with or without auditory and tactile feedback.

The AMD patients were stratified into three groups according to best-eye visual acuity — 20/20 to 20/50, 20/60 to 20/100 and worse than 20/100. Patients in the control group had best-eye visual acuity of 20/30 or better, according to the study.

The researchers found that auditory feedback improved performance in all groups. Specifically, among AMD patients, those with 20/20 to 20/50 vision improved 18% (P = .018), those with 20/60 to 20/100 vision improved 38% (P = .054), and those with worse than 20/100 vision improved 57% (P = .001). Control patients improved 19% (P = .001), according to the study.

Tactile feedback improved performance by 46% among AMD patients with the worst vision (P = .009) and by 17% for control patients (P = .038). Among AMD patients with the worst vision, having both auditory and haptic feedback reduced task performance time by 4 to 6 seconds per task, the authors noted.

The study is published in the September issue of the Journal of Retinal and Vitreous Diseases.