Transitioning vision rehabilitation patients from over-the-counter magnifiers to prescribed aids

We determined over-the-counter magnifier usage rates by patients who newly presented for vision rehabilitation services, and sought to elucidate whether patients' ratings of over-the-counter magnifiers were associated with vision rehabilitation management strategies.

Retrospective records reviews of 274 new vision rehabilitation patients seen between 2021-2023 were completed by three optometric providers at an ophthalmic academic center, college of optometry, and private practice.

Over half (58%) of patients tried an over-the-counter magnifier. Older age was significantly associated with trying over-the-counter magnifiers (OR:1.04; p < 0.001). Patients who tried an over-the-counter magnifier had significantly greater odds of the provider recommending and/or dispensing a prescribed hand-held optical illuminated magnifier (P< =0.04) or recommending a CCTV electronic magnifier (p = 0.049). The majority indicated over-the-counter magnifiers were somewhat (46%) or not helpful (38%). There was a significantly greater odds of rating the over-the-counter magnifier as not helpful when the provider subsequently recommended a CCTV (OR:4.8; p = 0.01) or higher spectacle-based near add power (OR: 2.0; p = 0.02).

Since most new patients were unsatisfied with over-the-counter magnifiers, it is encouraging that previous over-the-counter magnifier use often led to upgrades with hand-held optical illuminated magnifiers prescribed by vision rehabilitation providers, or patients were transitioned to CCTV electronic magnifiers or spectacle-based high add powers for near reading. These findings support that older adults who have previously experienced that over-the-counter magnifiers were either helpful or unhelpful are ideal candidates to receive vision rehabilitation by optometric providers who can transition them to a prescribed magnification device to better support their visual functioning needs for near reading.