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Costs for low vision services similar with or without therapist
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Researchers found that low vision rehabilitation was associated with improvement in several dimensions of visual function and direct health care costs similar to basic low vision services.
The Veterans Affairs Low Vision Intervention Trial (LOVIT) II was conducted at nine VA facilities and included 323 veterans with macular disease and a best-corrected distance visual acuity of 20/50 to 20/200.
Researchers randomized veterans to receive basic low vision services, which provided low vision devices without therapy, or low vision rehabilitation with a therapist for low vision services.
The researchers measured changes in functional visual ability from baseline to follow-up at 4 months after randomization using the VA Low Vision Visual Functioning Questionnaire (VA LV VHQ-48).
Of the 323 randomized patients, the mean age was 80 years, 314 were men, and 90.4% were white. One hundred sixty received basic low vision services, and 163 received low vision rehabilitation, according to the study.
The average direct costs per patient to the VA for the low vision optometry examination were $87 higher for the basic low vision services group, researchers wrote. Low vision therapists averaged more than 6.3 hours per patient, with a mean cost of $276 per patient.
The mean total direct costs per patient for basic low vision services was $1,662, and low vision rehabilitation was similar, at $1,788, researchers determined.
Basic low vision services required less time and had lower transportation costs, at an average of 6.93 fewer hours, they wrote.
Additionally, informal care givers spent less time assisting patients with basic low vision services as they spent less time driving to clinic visits, researchers wrote.
The changes in VA LV VHQ-48 scores from baseline and 4 months were greater for those who received rehabilitation than for patients who received basic services for reading ability, overall visual ability, visual information processing and visual motor skills, according to researchers.
Mean reading ability increased from 0.51 to 1.80 logits for the rehab group and from 0.51 to 1.45 logits for the basic low vision group.
Researchers concluded that patients receiving low vision rehabilitation had greater improvements in overall visual ability, reading ability, visual information processing and visual motor skill scores. – by Abigail Sutton
Disclosures: The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures. Funding for this research was provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research Development grant C6958R. Funding for the low vision devices prescribed and dispensed to veteran participants was provided by the VA Prosthetics Service.