Web-based visual acuity testing for children

PURPOSE To evaluate a newly developed, web-based system for at-home pediatric visual acuity testing and to compare results with standard in-office visual acuity test results. METHODS Children aged 3-12 years with and without visual deficits were enrolled (N = 65; 130 eyes). Monocular visual acuity was tested in-office using the ATS-HOTV (ages 3-6) or E-ETDRS (ages 7-12) protocol. Each child's family was emailed a link to a web-based version of the same visual acuity test for at-home testing. Equivalence was evaluated by using a linear mixed model to estimate the mean difference between in-office and at-home visual acuity test results and the corresponding two-sided 95% confidence interval. RESULTS For children tested with the ATS-HOTV protocol, the mean difference between in-office and at-home visual acuity test results was 0.01 log MAR (95% CI, -0.06 to 0.09). For children tested with the E-ETDRS protocol, the mean difference was 0.04 log MAR (95% CI, -0.06 to 0.14). CONCLUSIONS At-home, web-based ATS-HOTV and E-ETDRS visual acuity test results had excellent concordance with in-office visual acuity testing. If the burden of travel is significant, at-home testing of children's visual acuity may provide the information needed to continue care when it might otherwise be discontinued or delayed.