Reading Performance With a Video Magnifier

Mary Lou Jackson120 enrolled

Overview

The most common goal for patients with vision loss who present for vision rehabilitation is to be able to read. The video magnifier (a device which combines a video camera and a screen to view the print being magnified) is the device which most often allows low-vision individuals to read successfully for extended periods of time. Previous studies on the outcomes of vision rehabilitation have not identified which components of the vision rehabilitation are effective. The hypothesis of this project is that providing a video camera magnifier, with basic training in operating the device, will allow patients to enhance both objective reading ability and subjective report of reading competence.

Patients will be given a video magnifier at initial consultation or at the end of vision rehabilitation

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Enrollment

120

Conditions

Macular Degeneration

Interventions

Video camera magnifierBEHAVIORAL

reading with video camera magnifier

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Central field loss and decreased visual acuity in the better seeing eye (\<20/40 \& \>20/400). * New patient at MEEI Low Vision Rehabilitation Clinic Exclusion Criteria: * Dementia (Mini-Mental State Examination) * Clinical depression (Geriatric Depression Scale) * Patients who previously received vision rehabilitation * Patients who have previously owned a desktop video magnifier

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Change in objective reading performance

The subject undergoes testing to determine the change in reading performance on an objective scale.

Time frame: baseline and one month

Secondary Outcomes

Change in subjective reading performance

The subject is asked to describe subjectively how they feel their ability to read has either improved or decreased since using the reader.