Type of refractive correction affects reading speed, gaze behavior in presbyopic patients
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Key takeaways:
- Type of refractive correction affected visual acuity, distance vision, near vision and comfort.
- Refractive correction also affected reading speed, but not reading accuracy or visual search time.
The type of refractive correction worn by patients with presbyopia not only affected high-contrast visual acuity but also acceptance of distance and near vision, comfort, reading speed and gaze behavior, according to a study.
“It is possible that eye movement recordings across multiple viewing distances may provide new insight into multifocal contact lens performance,” Sarah L. Smith, BSc, a research optometrist at the University of Manchester, and colleagues wrote in Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics.
In a single-site, prospective, randomized cross-over study, researchers investigated eye and head movements of patients with presbyopia at distant, intermediate and near viewing with progressive addition spectacle lenses, single vision contact lenses and multifocal contact lenses, the latter two of which were Dailies Total 1 (delefilcon A, Alcon).
They enrolled 15 contact lens wearers (73% women; mean age, 59.8 years), who were randomly assigned to five refractive corrections, which were switched at each of five visits on 5 different days. Participants wore a Pupil Core headset that recorded eye and head movements as they performed reading, visual search and scene observation tasks at the three viewing distances. Researchers evaluated gaze metrics, which included fixation duration and head movement, and behavioral metrics of reading speed, reading accuracy and visual search time.
According to results, use of single vision contact lenses and progressive addition lenses resulted in significantly better visual acuity scores compared with multifocal contact lenses (P < .0001), with researchers noting a significant interaction effect between the correction worn and viewing distance (P = .0009). The type of correction worn also had a significant impact on distance vision (P = .02), near vision (P = .02), comfort (P = .0005) and overall impression (P < .0001).
Reading speed in single vision contact lenses was significantly faster compared with multifocal contact lenses and progressive addition lenses (P < .0001), and distance vision and near vision subjective scores were significantly higher with both contact lenses compared with spectacles. The lenses also were significantly more comfortable than the spectacles, with overall impression favoring single vision contact lenses (P < .0001).
The researchers reported no significant differences in visual search times with regard to viewing distance or correction worn; however, they noted significantly more head movement during visual search tasks while wearing progressive addition lenses vs. the contact lens options (P = .01).
“The findings of this study suggest that under certain conditions, wearers of [multifocal contact lenses] make fewer head movements compared to [progressive addition lens] spectacles,” Smith and colleagues wrote. “Gaze behavior metrics offer a new approach to compare and understand contact lens and spectacle performance, with potential applications including peripheral optical designs for myopia management.”
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