You are seeing this message because your Web browser does not support basic Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing and what you can do to make your experience on this site better.


ABOUT ARCHIVES
Advanced Search

Welcome   | My Account | E-mail Alerts | Access Rights | Sign In


  Vol. 103 No. 2, February 1985 TABLE OF CONTENTS
  Archives
  •  Online Features
  CLINICAL SCIENCES
 This Article
 •Full text PDF
 • Reply to article
 •Send to a friend
 • Save in My Folder
 •Save to citation manager
 •Permissions
 Citing Articles
 •Citing articles on HighWire
 •Citing articles on Web of Science (8)
 •Contact me when this article is cited
 Related Content
 •Similar articles in this journal
 Social Bookmarking
  Add to CiteULike Add to Connotea Add to Del.icio.us Add to Digg Add to Reddit Add to Technorati Add to Twitter What's this?

Effectiveness of a Pinhole Method for Visual Acuity Screening

John I. Loewenstein, MD; Paul F. Palmberg, MD, PhD; John E. Connett, PhD; Deborah N. Wentworth, MPH

Arch Ophthalmol. 1985;103(2):222-223.


Abstract

• 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.



Author Affiliations

From the Department of Ophthalmology, Boston University School of Medicine (Dr Loewenstein); the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami (Fla) (Dr Palmberg); and the Division of Biometry, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Dr Connett and Ms Wentworth).


Footnotes

Accepted for publication Oct 11, 1984.

Reprints not available.



Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Visual impairment due to undiagnosed refractive error in working age adults in Britain
Rahi et al.
Br J Ophthalmol 2008;92:1190-1194.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

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





HOME | CURRENT ISSUE | PAST ISSUES | TOPIC COLLECTIONS | CME | SUBMIT | SUBSCRIBE | HELP
CONDITIONS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY | CONTACT US | SITE MAP
 
© 1985 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.