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  Vol. 103 No. 2, February 1985 TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Effectiveness of a pinhole method for visual acuity screening

J. I. Loewenstein, P. F. Palmberg, J. E. Connett and D. N. Wentworth

Visual acuity screening was performed in the home in an adult population, using a standardized, retroilluminated chart. A pinhole disk was utilized to retest those subjects who initially failed the screening. All subjects failing the screening with the pinholes, and an equal number of age-matched subjects passing the screening (controls), were asked to have a complete ophthalmologic examination, including a protocol refraction in an eye clinic (clinic examination). Without use of the pinhole disk, 14.4% of subjects failed to read a 20/40 line. Use of the pinholes reduced the failure rate to 6.9%. Fifty-seven percent of those failing and 55% of controls had the clinic examination. Determination of best-corrected visual acuity after protocol refraction in the clinic indicated that the false-positive rate (the percentage of subjects who failed the screening but had visual acuity of 20/40 or better on the clinic examination) for the screening was 26%, and the false-negative rate (the percentage of subjects who passed the screening but had visual acuity of worse than 20/40 on the clinic examination) was 1.5%. Use of a pinhole disk is highly effective for visual acuity screening, reducing the false-positive rate by more than half.

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Screening older people for impaired vision in primary care: cluster randomised trial
Smeeth et al.
BMJ 2003;327:1027.
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