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Biomedical subjects

W C Maples

Publications and source records attributed to W C Maples.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Visual factors that significantly impact academic performance.

BACKGROUND: Both race and socio-economic status are correlated to performance in the classroom. These two factors are inter-related, since minorities, proportion-wise, are more highly represented in the lower socio-economic strata. Inefficient visual skills have been shown to be more prevalent among minority groups and in low socio-economic groups. These inefficient visual skills impact the students' learning. This study was undertaken to discover the visual skills that were significantly correlated with academic performance problems. METHOD: A total of 2,659 examinations were performed on 540 children over the course of six examination periods, which were administered over three consecutive school years. Socio-economic, racial, and standardized academic performance data (Iowa Test of Basic Skills--ITBS) were furnished by the families and the school system. The visual and demographic data from the examinations were then compared to performance on the 21 subtests of the ITBS. RESULTS: Some visual factors were found to be a much better predictor of scores on the ITBS than either race or socio-economic status. Even though the significance of these two demographic variables was small, race and socio-economic variables were each significant in about a third of the 21 ITBS scores. CONCLUSION: Visual factors are significantly better predictors of academic success as measured by the ITBS than is race or socio-economics. Visual motor activities are better predictors of ITBS scores than are binocularity or accommodation. These latter skills were significant predictors also, but to a lesser degree.

Accommodation, Ocular↗
PubMed2002

Efficacy of vision therapy as assessed by the COVD quality of life checklist.

BACKGROUND: Optometry is very interested in demonstrating that the therapies it prescribes are efficacious. Vision therapy is one of the traditional therapies of optometry, but it has not been as well accepted as other therapies. One of the reasons for this lack of acceptance has been the lack of studies that demonstrate quality of life improvement in the patient who has undergone a course of optometric vision therapy. The College of Optometrists in Vision Development Quality of Life checklist (COVD-QOL) was designed as a tool to assist in the documentation of these improvements. The COVD-QOL has been demonstrated to have good test-retest reliability and has shown that ADD/ADHD children have significantly higher scores on this instrument than non-ADD/ADHD children. This pilot study was designed to study if vision therapy would have a significant positive impact on 7- to 18-year-old children. METHODS: A prospective, five-office study was designed. A total of 62 consecutive children (whose parents agreed to participation) completed a course of optometric in-office vision therapy. Pre- and post-COVD-QOL's were completed at the end of therapy or at the end of 20 hours of in-office optometric vision therapy, whichever was shorter. The pre- and post-symptoms data were analyzed, collectively and by individual symptoms. RESULTS: The mean total scores, as well as each individual item score on the COVD-QOL, were significantly better on post-test than on pre-test. CONCLUSIONS: The COVD-QOL can be used to measure changes in symptoms, and to objectively demonstrate quality of life changes that are achieved through optometric vision therapy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

A comparison of the visual symptoms between ADD/ADHD and normal children.

BACKGROUND: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are commonly diagnosed conditions that affect the lives of many individuals Diagnosis of ADD/ADHD is based primarily on observation, although more-objective tests are being developed. Ritalin is the most-popular treatment for ADD/ADHD. Literature indicates the ADD/ADHD patient may experience visual system dysfunctions. The purpose of this article is to document visual system symptoms that may coexist with treated ADD/ADHD. METHODS: Forty-three subjects were separated into two groups, which were matched for age and gender The experimental group had previously been diagnosed as ADD/ADHD and was under pharmacological treatment. The control group was comprised of non-ADD/ADHD children. A modified College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) Quality of Life Outcomes Assessment was given to the parents of each child, which the child and parent completed together. The results between the experimental and control group were then compared. RESULTS: Results show that ADD/ADHD subjects report and/or experience more symptoms of visual system dysfunction than age-matched norms. Fourteen of the 33 symptoms were found to be significantly more severe in the ADD/ADHD group than in the control group. These symptoms were relatively evenly divided between four major symptom groups. CONCLUSIONS: ADD/ADHD children, even with current medical treatment, exhibit more visual and quality of life symptoms than do a similar group of non-ADD/ADHD children.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed2000

Test-retest reliability of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development Quality of Life Outcomes Assessment.

BACKGROUND: Medical diagnoses such as headaches, diplopia, nausea, and asthenopia are conditions that are often treated with optometric vision therapy. Improvement of such subjective conditions after a regimen of therapy is often difficult to objectively quantify. The goal of this study was to verify the test-re-test reliability of a new clinical survey instrument, the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) Quality of Life Outcomes Assessment, which allows the analysis of symptoms data. METHODS: The first-year class of optometry students at the Oklahoma College of Optometry at Northeastern State University were administered the instrument in a group setting on two different occasions, two weeks apart. Nineteen students completed both test and re-test. Statistical analysis by the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and paired t test were performed. RESULTS: Each subject reported some of the 30 symptoms on both test and re-test. The instrument was found to be reliable. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Analysis showed no significant differences in test-retest scores, either pooled or item-by-item. A paired t-test group and item analysis were insignificantly different between scores. Spearman's rho correlation for test-retest of each subject was 0.878. Eighty-nine percent (17 of 19) scored insignificantly different between administrations. Ninety percent of the items (27 of 30) were found to vary insignificantly between the two administrations. CONCLUSIONS: The COVD Quality of Life Outcomes Assessment is a reliable tool to measure changes in symptoms on the basis of optometric intervention--specifically, vision therapy.

Humans↗
PubMed1999

Factors affecting the clinical testing of accommodative facility.

A number of variables in the accommodation flipper test are thought to contaminate the results: the time for naming symbols; the manual facility to actually operate the flippers; the minification or magnification of symbol target size by the lenses; saccadic eye movements; and the relationship between the accommodation stimulus and its response. With the exception of the last variable, all undesirable factors have been eliminated in a newly developed modified method of accommodation facility measurement. In this method, double measurement through plano and +/- 2.00 D lenses, is executed. The average time in seconds per one cycle, taking only the accommodation into account for a group of 43 children (age from 7 years 11 months to 9 years 11 months), is 3.7 monocularly and 8.5 binocularly and the average number of cycles per minute in this group is 32.1 and 33.8 monocularly (for the dominant and nondominant eye, respectively) and 22.6 binocularly. These results in sec/cycle do not differ considerably from results received by other authors, if one considers the time necessary for naming the digits, mechanically changing the lenses, saccadic eye movements etc., and even those results given in cycles/minute do not differ either taking the wide ranges of standard deviations into account. However, the method reported here reflects accommodation facility more precisely. Measurements were performed also with the hand held flipper. Comparison of results summarised above and those obtained with a hand held flipper demonstrates that the hand held flipper is not a good device to measure accommodative facility.

Accommodation, Ocular↗
PubMed1999

Accommodative facility test results and academic success in Polish second graders.

BACKGROUND: Accommodative infacility, as commonly measured by accommodative flippers, has been implicated as a factor in academic underperformance. This study compares four areas of academics (reading, writing, math and gym) to accommodative flexibility scores. METHODS: Seventy-six elementary school children with a mean age was 8 years, 8 months were tested monocularly and binocularly with traditional accommodative flexibility flipper testing and with a new accommodative flexibility apparatus that allows control of visual acuteness, minification/magnification, and reaction time. These scores were then compared with academic scores using a number of failure criteria. The academic ratings were based on teacher responses for each student. RESULTS: Our data did not show any clear correlation or relationship between evaluations by reading, writing, math, or gym teachers and accommodative flexibility by either the traditional or new testing methods. CONCLUSION: Accommodative function, free of contaminating variables, does not appear to predict academic function any better than the traditional.

Accommodation, Ocular↗
PubMed1997

Corneal astigmatism in preschool Native Americans.

BACKGROUND: Native Americans tend to have high amounts of corneal and refractive with-the-rule astigmatism. This condition is reported to be of recent onset. Astigmatism has been shown to be prevalent in preschool-age children but, because of the process of emmetropization, this condition generally disappears by school age. Navajo children have been shown, however, to enter first grade with high mean amounts and high prevalence of with-the-rule astigmatism. This study was undertaken to ascertain whether with-the-rule astigmatism decreased in Navajo preschool children as they grew older. METHODS: Cross-sectional keratometric data were gathered on 250 preschool Navajo children from three states in the four corners district of the Navajo nation. RESULTS: High mean amounts of with-the-rule corneal astigmatism are prevalent at each age represented in this study. Girls have steeper corneas and more astigmatism than boys. Although the steepness of the corneal curve generally decreases slightly but significantly with age, the calculated astigmatism does not. The steepness of corneas also appears to vary by geographical area of residence within the Navajo nation. CONCLUSIONS: Emmetropization, with respect to the disappearance of astigmatism, does not appear to take place among the Navajo as it does in either Caucasian or Asian preschool-age children.

Astigmatism↗
PubMed1995

Vision profile of patients with mild brain injury.

BACKGROUND: Patients suffering from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) show many types of visual dysfunctions, including binocular, oculomotor, accommodative and visual field loss. This study evaluates the visual status of patients suffering a mild TBI. METHODS: The visual findings of a control group of 16 non-TBI patients are compared to the visual findings of 16 patients with documented mild TBI. Functions compared include symptomology, refractive status, stereopsis, ocular alignment by cover test, relative accommodation, pursuits, near point of convergence break and recovery, phorias at distance and near and vergence ranges at distance and near. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between the two groups in the areas of refractive status, near point of convergence break/recovery, near cover test, stereo acuity and base-in break at distance. There were also significant differences in symptomology, pursuit function, base-in recovery at distance, base-in break/recovery at near and base-out recovery at distance. CONCLUSIONS: In-depth visual evaluation of mild TBI patients is critical for documentation purposes as well as for possible treatment regimens.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Optometric management of strabismus patients.

BACKGROUND: The management of strabismic patients varies within the eye care profession. This paper provides an overview of strabismus; including etiology, diagnosis and therapeutic options. Implications as to the efficacy of different therapy strategies for strabismus are discussed. METHODS: A literature review of strabismus is presented and a sequence of therapeutic options is offered. RESULTS: A diagnostic battery of tests to evaluate the strabismus patient is reported along with therapeutic options. The basic assumption made in this paradigm is that one should move from a least invasive and therefore more safe, to a more invasive protocol, if necessary. The ultimate objective of any strabismic therapy should be to develop or restore effective binocular function, efficiency of vision and comfort, as well as cosmesis. CONCLUSIONS: In most cases, optometric therapeutic procedures should be the beginning treatment of choice in strabismus. It has been demonstrated in the literature that optometric therapy is less invasive and as successful as surgery in many cases of strabismus.

Optometry↗
PubMed1990

An epidemiological study of the ocular and visual profiles of Oklahoma Cherokees and Minnesota Chippewas.

Over the last three decades some American Indian tribes in North America have received attention in the literature as a minority group with unique visual characteristics. Studies on the refractive status of Indians have shown an increase of refractive errors and particularly an abnormally high prevalence, and amount of, with-the-rule astigmatism. These changes appear to have taken place over the last 40 years. Eskimos, on the other hand, have recently showed an astoundingly high incidence of myopia. Other Native American tribes do not show dramatic changes in myopia or astigmatism. The Public Health Service-Indian Health Service, as an ongoing aspect of their responsibilities to Native Americans, perform screenings on children. This study reports the results of visual screenings primarily of Oklahoma Cherokee and Minnesota Chippewa children.

Astigmatism↗
PubMed1988

Interrater and test-retest reliability of pursuits and saccades.

Pursuit and saccade testing have long been used by optometry to evaluate oculomotor efficiency. The literature is not consistent as to an acceptable grading system for these tests. An oculomotor test is described which grades pursuit and saccade skills in four major areas of function. Interrater and test-retest reliability data are reported which indicate that this test has clinically acceptable grading consistency. Implications for the field of optometric measurement are discussed.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Test-retest reliability of colored filter testing.

This article evaluates the reliability of colored filter testing procedures. Properly chosen colored filters, with the tint being specific to each patient, are said to be effective in the treatment of dyslexia. We investigated the test-retest reliability of colored filter testing in relationship to two specific symptom levels using a forced-choice test procedure. This research was to evaluate test-retest reliability, not the validity of colored filter testing. Forty-one participants (28 boys and 13 girls) ranging in age from 15 to 17 years served as participants. Two tests, separated by 2 weeks, were conducted under standard conditions. Results indicated poor test-retest reliability.

Adolescent↗