The Melbourne Acuity Screening Test (MAST)

The Melbourne Acuity Screening Test (MAST) is a vision screening technique which combines the features of a linear presentation, incorporating a crowding effect with a pass/fail test protocol. It is a simple, quick screening test which can be used for both literate and illiterate people. This paper reports on the preliminary results of a comparison of the pass/fail method with that of the measurement of threshold linear acuity. The evaluation consisted of four parts: (1) test-retest and reliability of the MAST and Sheridan Gardiner (SG) linear test; (2) concurrent validity of the MAST compared with the SG linear test; (3) a limited negative predictive study, and (4) a comparison of the time taken to perform the MAST versus the measurement of threshold acuity. The test-retest reliability for both tests was high. The agreement, determined by Cohenthorn s kappa, ranged between 0.71 and 0.79. The agreement between the MAST and the SG linear test was also high, ranging between 0.88 and 0.89. The negative predictive value was 100%. The positive predictive value was 85.7%. The MAST was also significantly quicker to perform, taking approximately half the time of the SG linear test.