Objective measures of the effects of the "Read Without Glasses Method".

PURPOSE: The Read Without Glasses Method is a home-based vision training program designed to "avoid, eliminate, or reduce the need for bifocals" in presbyopic patients with 6 minutes of daily vision exercises. The purpose of this study was to objectively measure changes in accommodation and near unaided visual acuity (VA) in emmetropic presbyopes using this program.

METHODS

Eight emmetropic presbyopes between 50 and 65 years of age participated in 2 pretreatment and 2 post-treatment visits. Primary outcome measures included near unaided VA (MNREAD acuity chart) and accommodative accuracy at near (Grand Seiko). Pupil size was measured at each visit during accommodative measures to assess the possibility that pupil size may have had an impact on near VA. Subjects were also queried about compliance and use of reading glasses after treatment.

RESULTS

Repeated measures analysis of variance showed no significant change in unaided near VA pre- or post-treatment (p = 0.956). A statistically significant change in accommodation (0.176 D) was found at visit 3 (p = 0.0098) that did not persist at visit 4; however, this change was not clinically significant. Pupil size did not show significant change across all study visits. Survey results indicated that 87.5% of subjects reported that their near vision was slightly to significantly improved after the use of the program.

CONCLUSIONS

The Read Without Glasses Method does not produce clinically or statistically significant changes in unaided near VA and fails to show clinically significant changes in accommodation at near in presbyopic emmetropes despite favorable subjective responses of participants.