Accommodation Insufficiency in Children: Are Exercises Better than Reading Glasses?

Abstract

PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to investigate which mode of therapy, plus lens (+1.00D) reading addition (PLRA) or spherical flipper (+/- 1.50D), is the most effective in the treatment of accommodative insufficiency (AI). METHODS: Initially, 24 subjects (mean age 10.3 years, +/- 2.5 SD) with AI were included in the study. Ten subjects completed 8 weeks of PRLA treatment whereas 9, out of 14, subjects completed 8 weeks of spherical flipper treatment. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant improvement in the accommodative amplitude with both regimes of treatment [F(1, 17) = 18.84, p = 0.0004). Spherical flipper treatment was found to have an overall larger effect on accommodative function as compared with PLRA treatment. However, accommodation did not reach normal values after only 8 weeks of treatment. DISCUSSION: The results indicate that both methods improve the accommodative amplitude, but that overall accommodative function reaches higher levels of improvement with spherical flipper as compared with PLRA treatment. However, the accommodative function did not gain normal values in 8 weeks of treatment with either regime.