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The Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals Across the Spectrum of Visual Impairment
PURPOSE: TO assess perceptions and implications of COVID-19 infection across the spectrum of individuals with visually impairment (VI) and those with normal sight. DESIGN: Prospective cross-sectional comparative study. METHODS: Setting: institutional. Patients: 232 patients and their caregivers. Fou...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier Inc.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7997933/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33781768 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2021.03.016 |
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author | Shalaby, Wesam S. Odayappan, Annamalai Venkatesh, Rengaraj Swenor, Bonnielin K. Ramulu, Pradeep Y. Robin, Alan L. Srinivasan, Kavitha Shukla, Aakriti Garg |
author_facet | Shalaby, Wesam S. Odayappan, Annamalai Venkatesh, Rengaraj Swenor, Bonnielin K. Ramulu, Pradeep Y. Robin, Alan L. Srinivasan, Kavitha Shukla, Aakriti Garg |
author_sort | Shalaby, Wesam S. |
collection | PubMed |
description | PURPOSE: TO assess perceptions and implications of COVID-19 infection across the spectrum of individuals with visually impairment (VI) and those with normal sight. DESIGN: Prospective cross-sectional comparative study. METHODS: Setting: institutional. Patients: 232 patients and their caregivers. Four groups were created based on better eye characteristics: blind (best-corrected distance visual acuity [BCDVA] <3/60 or visual field <10 central degrees); severe VI (BCDVA ≤3/60 to <6/60; vertical cup-to-disc ratio ≥0.85 or neuroretinal rim width ≤0.1); moderate VI (BCDVA ≤6/60 to <6/18); or no or mild VI (controls: BCDVA ≥6/18) based on International Classification of Diseases-10 criteria and Foster and Quigley's consensus definition of glaucoma. Procedure: telephone questionnaires. Main outcome measures: differences in perceptions and implications of COVID-19 infection across various levels of VI. Caregiver perceptions were a secondary outcome measure. RESULTS: Surveys were completed by 232 participants, with 58 participants in each VI group. Mean age was 58.9 ± 13.2 years old. Greater degrees of VI were associated with older age (P = .008) and lower education level (P = .046). Blind participants more commonly perceived vision as a risk factor for contracting COVID-19 (P = .045), were concerned about access to health care (P <.001), obtained news through word of mouth (P <.001), and less commonly wore masks (P = .003). Controls more commonly performed frequent handwashing (P = .001), were aware of telemedicine (P = .029), and had fewer concerns about social interactions (P = .020) than groups with substantial VI. All caregivers reported more frequent patient care since the COVID-19 pandemic began. CONCLUSIONS: The pandemic might have had a disproportionate impact on the visually impaired, and evidence-based assessments of COVID-19 health outcomes in this population are warranted. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7997933 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Elsevier Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-79979332021-03-29 The Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals Across the Spectrum of Visual Impairment Shalaby, Wesam S. Odayappan, Annamalai Venkatesh, Rengaraj Swenor, Bonnielin K. Ramulu, Pradeep Y. Robin, Alan L. Srinivasan, Kavitha Shukla, Aakriti Garg Am J Ophthalmol Article PURPOSE: TO assess perceptions and implications of COVID-19 infection across the spectrum of individuals with visually impairment (VI) and those with normal sight. DESIGN: Prospective cross-sectional comparative study. METHODS: Setting: institutional. Patients: 232 patients and their caregivers. Four groups were created based on better eye characteristics: blind (best-corrected distance visual acuity [BCDVA] <3/60 or visual field <10 central degrees); severe VI (BCDVA ≤3/60 to <6/60; vertical cup-to-disc ratio ≥0.85 or neuroretinal rim width ≤0.1); moderate VI (BCDVA ≤6/60 to <6/18); or no or mild VI (controls: BCDVA ≥6/18) based on International Classification of Diseases-10 criteria and Foster and Quigley's consensus definition of glaucoma. Procedure: telephone questionnaires. Main outcome measures: differences in perceptions and implications of COVID-19 infection across various levels of VI. Caregiver perceptions were a secondary outcome measure. RESULTS: Surveys were completed by 232 participants, with 58 participants in each VI group. Mean age was 58.9 ± 13.2 years old. Greater degrees of VI were associated with older age (P = .008) and lower education level (P = .046). Blind participants more commonly perceived vision as a risk factor for contracting COVID-19 (P = .045), were concerned about access to health care (P <.001), obtained news through word of mouth (P <.001), and less commonly wore masks (P = .003). Controls more commonly performed frequent handwashing (P = .001), were aware of telemedicine (P = .029), and had fewer concerns about social interactions (P = .020) than groups with substantial VI. All caregivers reported more frequent patient care since the COVID-19 pandemic began. CONCLUSIONS: The pandemic might have had a disproportionate impact on the visually impaired, and evidence-based assessments of COVID-19 health outcomes in this population are warranted. Elsevier Inc. 2021-07 2021-03-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7997933/ /pubmed/33781768 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2021.03.016 Text en © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Article Shalaby, Wesam S. Odayappan, Annamalai Venkatesh, Rengaraj Swenor, Bonnielin K. Ramulu, Pradeep Y. Robin, Alan L. Srinivasan, Kavitha Shukla, Aakriti Garg The Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals Across the Spectrum of Visual Impairment |
title | The Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals Across the Spectrum of Visual Impairment |
title_full | The Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals Across the Spectrum of Visual Impairment |
title_fullStr | The Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals Across the Spectrum of Visual Impairment |
title_full_unstemmed | The Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals Across the Spectrum of Visual Impairment |
title_short | The Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals Across the Spectrum of Visual Impairment |
title_sort | impact of covid-19 on individuals across the spectrum of visual impairment |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7997933/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33781768 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2021.03.016 |
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