Reliability of Visual Field testing and its learning curve among children

Abstract

Abstract Background Vision is a combination of distinct measurable functions including visual acuity, visual field and others. The visual field includes the area of space seen when the individual’s gaze is directed at any central object. Objective The aim of work in our study was to detect the learning curve of visual field testing in a young age group. Methods This study included 72 eyes of 36 children from both sexes aging from 6 to 12 years. All children were from Ain-shams university hospitals outpatient clinics. A detailed questionnaire was answered by both the care-giver and the child on the time spent playing video-games in terms of days per week and hours per day and children were categorized accordingly into VGP and NVGP. Children are devided according to Green and Bavelier’s criteria for VGP participants. The visual field testing was performed twice with a 7-day interval apart and the results of the first session were compared with those of the second. Learning effect was defined as an improvement at results for duration and perimetric reliability indices. Results Mean age of participant children was 8.94 ±1.90. Mean reliability parameters were: 68.25 ± 25.78% of fixation losses in the first perimetric test and 71.02 ± 30.84% in the second, 39.14 ± 28.27% of false positive errors in the first test and 44.01 ± 31.24 in the second, 9.67 ± 5.97% of false negative errors in the first test and 9.22 ± 7.74 in the second. The mean test duration was 6.91 ± 1.78 in the first test and 6.58 ± 1.33 in the second. Conclusion There was remarkable enhancement in the time taken to complete the second perimetric test in VGP with respect to NVGP indicating a better learning curve.