Accommodation Disorders (AD)

Primary Outcome Measures:

• Accommodation Lag 5D [ Time Frame: 3 week period ]
  Lag will be measured at different viewing distances and durations using autorefraction. Accommodation error refers to the difference between the distance where the target is located and where the eyes focus. Lag refers error that is under focussed; lead is error that is over focussed. This distance is measured in diopters, or 1/meter.
  
  

Secondary Outcome Measures:

• Conlon Symptom Survey [ Time Frame: 3 weeks ]
  Measures visual discomfort symptoms while doing near work. 23 item survey using a 4-point rating scale (never, occasionally, often, almost always). Total raw score reported on a range from 0 to 69 with higher scores indicating more frequent symptoms.
  
  

This project studies accommodative function, the ability to focus while doing near work. Visual discomfort symptoms, such as headaches, sore eyes, and blurred vision are commonly associated with prolonged reading or other near work. Researchers have long suspected accommodative dysfunction was involved but most clinical studies have failed to establish a relationship between weak accommodation and symptoms or reading impairments. Recent research, however, has found that clinical measure overestimate accommodative function and encourage the use of objective, autorefraction methods to measure and study accommodative weakness. This project will accomplish three goals. First, using autorefraction objective reliable procedures will be developed for measuring accommodative lag, the difference between the target location and where the eye is focused. Second, experiments will measure in real-time the impact of accommodative lag on reading fluency and visual discomfort systems. Third, studies will explore the role of the slow adaptive component in accommodative weakness. This work will lead to better methods for diagnosing and treating accommodative disorders.