Functional impairment of reading in patients with dry eye

To evaluate the impact of dry eye on reading performance. Out-loud and silent reading in patients with clinically significant dry eye (n=41) and controls (n=50) was evaluated using standardised texts. Dry eye measures included tear film break-up time, Schirmer's test and corneal epithelial stai...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	British journal of ophthalmology Vol. 101; no. 4; p. 481
Main Authors:	Mathews, Priya M, Ramulu, Pradeep Y, Swenor, Bonnielin S, Utine, Canan A, Rubin, Gary S, Akpek, Esen K
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England 01-04-2017
Subjects:	Aged Dry Eye Syndromes - physiopathology Eye Movements - physiology Female Humans Male Reading Reproducibility of Results Retrospective Studies Task Performance and Analysis Vision Tests - methods Vision, Low - physiopathology Visual Acuity Ocular surface Vision
Online Access:	Get more information
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	To evaluate the impact of dry eye on reading performance. Out-loud and silent reading in patients with clinically significant dry eye (n=41) and controls (n=50) was evaluated using standardised texts. Dry eye measures included tear film break-up time, Schirmer's test and corneal epithelial staining. Symptoms were assessed by the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI). The dry eye group had a greater proportion of women as compared with the control group but did not differ in age, race, education level or visual acuity (p≥0.05 for all). Out-loud reading speed averaged 148 words per minute (wpm) in dry eye subjects and 163 wpm in controls (p=0.006). Prolonged silent reading speed averaged 199 wpm in dry eye subjects versus 226 wpm in controls (p=0.03). In multivariable regression models, out-loud and sustained silent reading speeds were 10 wpm (95% CI -20 to -1 wpm, p=0.039) and 14% (95% CI -25% to -2%, p=0.032) slower, respectively, in dry eye subjects as compared with controls. Greater corneal staining was associated with slower out-loud (-2 wpm/1 unit increase in staining score, 95% CI =-3 to -0.3 wpm) and silent (-2%, 95% CI -4 to -0.6 wpm) reading speeds (p<0.02 for both). Significant interactions were found between OSDI score and word-specific features (longer and less commonly used words) on out-loud reading speed (p<0.05 for both). Dry eye is associated with slower out-loud and silent reading speeds, providing direct evidence regarding the functional impact of dry eye. Reading speed represents a measurable clinical finding that correlates directly with dry eye severity.
ISSN:	1468-2079
DOI:	10.1136/bjophthalmol-2015-308237