Volume 25, Issue 1 (Avicenna Journal of Clinical Medicine - Spring 2018)                   Avicenna J Clin Med 2018, 25(1): 49-55 | Back to browse issues page

XML Persian Abstract Print

Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:
Bazzazi N, Piri E, Ali Seif Rabiei M, Akbarzadeh S. Comparative Assessment of Visual Acuity and Contrast Sensitivity in Drivers Presenting to Ophthalmologic Clinic of Hamadan Farshchian Hospital. Avicenna J Clin Med 2018; 25 (1) :49-55
URL: http://sjh.umsha.ac.ir/article-1-1698-en.html
Comparative Assessment of Visual Acuity and Contrast Sensitivity in Drivers Presenting to Ophthalmologic Clinic of Hamadan Farshchian Hospital
Nooshin Bazzazi1 , Ensieh Piri2 , Mohammad Ali Seif Rabiei3 , Siamak Akbarzadeh 4
1- Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
2- General Practitioner, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
3- Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
4- Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran , siakbarzadeh65@yahoo.com
Abstract:   (6360 Views)
Background and Objective: Car accidents are the second leading cause of mortality in Iran. For safe driving, drivers require minimum acceptable visual acuity. In Iran, the accepted routine test to take driving license is Snellen vision chart, which is not adequate for visual acuity determination in real and natural environment. It seems that introducing a more sensitive and specific screening test is necessary. In this survey, we studied whether adding contrast sensitivity test to the present screening protocol is valuable or not.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study of 200 drivers presenting to the ophthalmologic clinic of Farshchian Hospital in Hamadan, Iran, was performed during 2014-2016. The participants were chosen using the census sampling method. Complete ophthalmologic examination, visual acuity evaluation, and contrast sensitivity test were carried out. Data were analyzed using SPSS, version 20.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 39.6 years. The patients were allocated to a group with normal visual acuity and a normal corrected visual acuity group. The most common refractive errors were concurrent myopia and astigmatism. In normal visual acuity group, the percentages of abnormal contrast sensitivity (in increasing order of frequency) in appropriate lighting condition were 0, 8.3, 13.8, and 22.2 in the right eye and 0, 10.8, 16.21, and 18.91 in the left eye, and in reduced lighting condition, they were 0, 13.8, 33.3, 33.3, and 41.6 in the right eye and 0, 21.62, 21.62, 27.02, and 27.02 in the left eye. With normal corrected visual acuity, the percentages of abnormal contrast sensitivity test in normal lighting condition were 0, 14.28, 35.71, 64.28, and 64.28 in the right eye and 0, 7.69, 46.15, 53.84, and 84.61 in the left eye and 0, 50, 85.71, 92.85, and 92.85 and 0, 61.53, 76.92, 76.92, and 84.61, respectively, in low light condition.
Conclusion: It seems that contrast sensitivity test is a better predictor of visual ability in comparison with visual acuity, thus, it is recommended to be added to the vision-related driving license requirements.
Keywords: Contrast Sensitivity, Drivers, Visual Acuity
Full-Text [PDF 495 kb]   (1425 Downloads)    
Type of Study: Original |
References
1. Siyah M. Car accidents are one of major cause of death in Iran and a significant part of it allocate to visual acuity. Available at: URL: http://www.Imo.ir; 2011. [Persian]
2. Road traffic injuries. ISFP Personality. Available at: URL: http://www.isfp.ir; 2015. [Persian]
3. Hofstetter HW. Visual acuity and highway accidents. J Am Optom Assoc. 1976;47(7):887-93. [PubMed]
4. Desapriya E , Harjee R, Brubacher J, Chan H, Hewapathirane DS, Subzwari S, et al. Vision screening of older drivers for preventing road traffic injuries and fatalities. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2014;2:21-2. [DOI] [PubMed]
5. McDowell MR, Wennell J, Storr PA, Darzentas J. Gap acceptance and traffic conflict simulation as a measure of risk. Wokingham: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL); 1983.
6. Anstey KJ, Eramudugolla R, Ross LA, Lautenschlager NT, Wood J. Road safety in an aging population: risk factors, assessment, interventions, and future directions. Int Psychogeriatr. 2016;28(3):349-56. [DOI] [PubMed]
7. Spreng L, Favrat B, Borruat FX, Vaucher P. Cross-sectional study assessing the addition of contrast sensitivity to visual acuity when testing for fitness to drive. BMJ Open. 2018;8(1):e018546. [DOI] [PubMed]
8. O'Byrne C, Naughton A, O’Neill D. Is driver licensing restriction for age-related medical conditions an effective mechanism to improve driver safety without unduly impairing mobility? Eur Geriatr Med. 2015;6(6):541-4. [DOI]
9. Wilhem H. Vision and car driving ability. Ther Umsch. 2011;68(5):243-7. [DOI] [PubMed]
10. Lachenmayr B. Recommendations for assessment of twilight vision and glare sensitivity for safe driving. Ophthalmologe. 2013;110(12):1160-2. [DOI] [PubMed]
11. Wilhem H, Hofman D, Roelcke S, Quast R. Exprrience in contrast vision testing. Klin Monble Auqenhehilkd. 2011;228(11):967-70. [DOI] [PubMed]
12. Ginsburg AP. Contrast sensitivity and functional vision. Int Ophthalmol Clin. 2003;43(2):5-15. [PubMed]
13. Bowers AR, Anastasio RJ, Sheldon SS, O'Connor MG, Hollis AM, Howe PD, et al. Can we improve clinical prediction of at-risk older drivers? Accid Anal Prev. 2013;59:537-47. [DOI] [PubMed]
14. Rusu V, Mihai E, Stanila A. Contrast sensitivity in diabetic retinopathy. Acta Med Trancilvanica. 2014;2(3):193-5.
15. Rodriguez–Vallejo M, Remon L, Monsoriu JA, Furlan WD. Designing a new test for contrast sensitivity function measurement with iPad. J Optom. 2015;8(2):101-8. [DOI] [PubMed]
16. Kerber KL, Thorn F, Bex PJ, Vera-Diaz FA. Peripheral contrast sensitivity and attention in myopia. Vision Res. 2016;125:49-54. [DOI] [PubMed]
17. Pauné J, Thivent S, Armengol J, Quevedo L, Faria-Ribeiro M, González-Méijome JM Changes in peripheral refraction, higher-order aberrations, and accommodative lag with a radial refractive gradient contact lens in young myopes. Eye Contact Lens. 2016;42(6):380-7. [DOI] [PubMed]
18. Wood JM, Owens DA. Standard measures of visual acuity do not predict drivers' recognition performance under day or night conditions. Optom Vis Sci. 2005;82(8):698-705. [PubMed]
19. O'Carroll DC1, Wiederman SD. Contrast sensitivity and the detection of moving patterns and features. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2014;369(1636):20130043. [DOI] [PubMed]
20. Sakata N, Tokonaga T, Kazunori M, Oshika T. Changes in contrast sensitivity function and ocular higher order aberration by conventional myopic photorefractive keratectomy. Jpn J Ophthalmol. 2007;51(5):347-52. [DOI] [PubMed]
Add your comments about this article : Your username or Email:
CAPTCHA
Send email to the article author

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

© 2024 CC BY-NC 4.0 | Avicenna Journal of Clinical Medicine

Designed & Developed by : Yektaweb