Transitioning vision rehabilitation patients from over-the-counter magnifiers to prescribed aids.
Ava K Bittner, Patrick D Yoshinaga, John E Kaminski
PMID 39083649WHAT IT FOUND
Most patients who bought their own magnifiers found them unhelpful, yet clinicians successfully prescribed better aids to them.
Trying an over-the-counter magnifier predicted a higher chance of receiving and keeping a prescribed optical or electronic device, rather than blocking further care.
Key findings
01Among patients who rated their over-the-counter magnifier, only 16.5% found it helpful, while 38% found it not helpful.
02Patients who had tried an over-the-counter magnifier had significantly greater odds of being recommended a prescribed hand-held optical illuminated magnifier or a CCTV electronic magnifier.
03Having tried an over-the-counter magnifier was significantly related to older age, but not to the severity of visual acuity loss or diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study only looked at patients who sought vision rehabilitation. People who were satisfied with their store-bought magnifiers likely never came to these clinics, so the 'unhelpful' rating may be exaggerated for the general low-vision population. The study reports what was prescribed and dispensed, but does not report if the new aids actually helped the patients read better or if they kept using them after leaving the clinic. Ratings of the over-the-counter magnifiers were not consistently recorded at all three sites, limiting the analysis of patient satisfaction to a subset of the group.
Declared interests
The authors report no competing interests. The study was conducted at academic and private clinical sites, with no mention of external funding sources or commercial sponsors influencing the design or reporting.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the high rate of 'not helpful' ratings as evidence that over-the-counter magnifiers are useless for everyone. This sample consisted of people who had already failed with those devices and sought specialist care. Many people with mild impairment may still find store-bought magnifiers sufficient.