Evaluation of the SpotChecks contrast sensitivity test in healthy adults

• Published in: Ophthalmic & physiological optics Vol. 44; no. 6; pp. 1072 - 1083
• Main Authors: Vu, Lien T., Tran, Kelly M., Niu, Yabo, Cheng, Han
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.09.2024
• Subjects: Acuity; Adult; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Contrast Sensitivity - physiology; Eye; Female; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity analysis; Vision Tests - instrumentation; Vision Tests - methods; Visual Acuity - physiology; Young Adult; repeatability; Pelli–Robson; reproducibility; SpotChecks; contrast sensitivity
• ISSN: 0275-5408; 1475-1313; 1475-1313
• DOI: 10.1111/opo.13349

SpotChecks is a new contrast sensitivity (CS) test designed for self-monitoring of vision. This study assessed the test-retest repeatability of take-home SpotChecks, in-office SpotChecks and near Pelli-Robson charts in healthy adults. One eye of 61 healthy adults with near visual acuity (VA) of 6/9 or better (age range 22-84, mean 49 [18] years) was tested during two office visits (mean 10 [8] days apart). Each visit included high-contrast VA, then 12 randomly ordered CS tests (6 different SpotChecks and 6 different Pelli-Robson) under the same lighting (luminance 110 cd/m ), all at near in the same eye with habitual correction. The same eye was self-tested with take-home SpotChecks once a day on 6 days between the office visits. SpotChecks was scored by the logCS at the highest line with ≥2 errors. Pelli-Robson was scored by [0.05 × number of letters read correctly - 0.15]. Repeatability of logCS was defined as 1.96 S , S representing within-subject standard deviation. Comparison for repeatability was performed with Bootstrap hypothesis test. SpotChecks and Pelli-Robson showed similar intra-session or inter-visit repeatability (p = 0.14-0.81). Inter-day repeatability for take-home SpotChecks was 0.18 logCS, the same as that from the first measurements of two office visits with SpotChecks or Pelli-Robson. Inter-visit repeatability improved to 0.15 by using the average of two repeated measurements for SpotChecks (p = 0.02) or three repeated measurements for Pelli-Robson (p = 0.04). Age showed a small effect on logCS (-0.015/decade, p = 0.02) for both SpotChecks and Pelli-Robson. Mean logCS was 0.05 lower in those ≥50 years (SpotChecks 1.84 [0.10] and Pelli-Robson 1.77 [0.10]) compared with those <50 years of age (SpotChecks 1.89 [0.07] and Pelli-Robson 1.83 [0.07]). SpotChecks showed good repeatability with take-home and in-office testing in healthy adults, making it a promising tool for monitoring disease progression at home.