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Anne-Catherine Roch-Levecq, PhD; Barbara L. Brody, MPH; Ronald G. Thomas, PhD; Stuart I. Brown, MD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2008;126(2):252-258.

Objectives  To examine cognitive abilities of low-income preschoolers with uncorrected ametropia and effects of spectacle correction.

Methods  Baseline and 6-week data from a longitudinal controlled study were analyzed. Subjects were 70 preschoolers (mean age, 4.6 years; 60.0% were female; and 85.7% were Latino), including 35 children with previously uncorrected ametropia and 35 emmetropic control subjects. Ametropia was defined as bilateral hyperopia of 4.00 diopters (D) or more in children aged 3 to 5 years, astigmatism of 2.00 D or more in children aged 3 years and 1.50 D or more in children aged 4 and 5 years, or a combination of both. Emmetropia was defined as 2.00 sphere diopters or less and 1.00 cylinder diopter or less in both eyes. Ametropes were assessed before and 6 weeks after correction and compared with control subjects. Primary and secondary outcome measures were Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence–Revised scores, respectively.

Results  At baseline, uncorrected ametropes scored significantly lower on the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (P = .005) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence–Revised performance scale (P = .01). After 6 weeks of correction, the ametropic group significantly improved on the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration compared with emmetropic control subjects (P = .02).

Conclusions  Preschoolers with uncorrected ametropia had significant reduction in visual-motor function. Wearing spectacles for 6 weeks improved Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration scores to emmetropic levels.

Author Affiliations: Division of Community Ophthalmology (Dr Roch-Levecq and Ms Brody), Department of Ophthalmology (Drs Roch-Levecq and Brown and Ms Brody), Divisions of International Health and Cross-Cultural Medicine (Ms Brody) and Biostatistics and Bioinformatics (Dr Thomas), Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, and Department of Neurosciences (Dr Thomas), University of California, San Diego, La Jolla.