Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Tools in Very-Low Vision: Ready for Use in Trials?

Traditional endpoints assessing visual function are limited by their responsiveness to interventions restoring or maintaining vision. An alternative concept is assessing instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Herein, we review all available vision-specific IADL instruments relevant for vision restoration trials and report data for the most promising instrument. Six relevant instruments exist: The Low Vision Functional Status Evaluation (LVFSE), Timed IADL (TIADL), Melbourne Low-Vision Activities of Daily Living Index (MLVAI), Assessment of Disability Related to Vision (ADREV), Functional Low-Vision Observer Rated Assessment (FLORA), and Very Low Vision IADL (IADL-VLV). Both internal consistency and test-retest data were available for the LVFSE, MLVAI, and IADL-VLV. In a sample from a low-vision clinic (n = 51; age 57 ± 16 years), we report additional validation data on the IVI-VLV including test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.981 [0.961; 0.991]). The LVSFE was noticeably less reliable than the MLVAI and the IADL-VLV. Content and construct validity data were available for the LVFSE, TIADL, MLVAI, ADREV, and IADL-VLV, but only the MLVAI and IADL-VLV were developed for an ultra-low vision context. Ceiling effects were present across instruments. Thus, of all appropriate IADL instruments related to vision, the IADL-VLV and MLVAI best meet existing requirements for use in vision restoration trials, e.g., in gene therapies or visual prostheses in inherited retinal diseases, but require further validation.