Related Experiment Videos
Visual deficits in children born at less than 32 weeks' gestation with and without major ocular pathology and
H J Dowdeswell1, A M Slater, J Broomhall
1Department of Psychology, University of Exeter.
Insights
Premature children show subtle visual impairments, including reduced contrast sensitivity and color vision deficits, even without other ocular or cerebral issues. These findings highlight the preterm eye
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Developmental Pediatrics
Background:
- Premature birth (<32 weeks gestation) can impact long-term health.
- Visual development in preterm infants requires careful monitoring.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare visual abilities in children born prematurely versus full-term controls.
- To identify subtle visual impairments in preterm children.
Main Methods:
- Vision testing of 68 preterm children (5-7.5 years old) against matched full-term controls.
- Assessment included visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, stereopsis, and color vision.
Main Results:
- Preterm children exhibited poorer visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and stereopsis.
- A high incidence of color vision defects (tritan type) was observed in preterm children.
- Even after excluding those with ocular/cerebral pathology, preterm children had poorer contrast sensitivity and color vision.
Conclusions:
- Preterm infants are at risk for subtle visual impairment independent of refractive error or cerebral damage.
- These visual deficits may persist beyond early childhood.
- Further research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms.
Aims:
A study was carried out to compare the visual abilities of prematurely born children with those of matched full term controls.
Methods:
The vision of 68 children born at less than 32 weeks' gestation and aged between 5 and 7 1/2 years at the time of testing was compared with that of a control group of children born at full term, and matched for sex and age from due date.
Results:
The premature children had significantly poorer distance and near visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and stereopsis, and a high incidence of colour vision defects (predominantly tritan type). These differences were associated with the high incidence of ocular pathology experienced by 31 (45%) of the premature children compared with only nine (13%) of the controls. When excluding children with ocular and cerebral pathology, 32 matched pairs of premature and control children remained. The 32 premature children did not differ from their controls in terms of distance and near acuities or stereopsis, but they did have significantly poor contrast sensitivity in both their 'best' and 'worst' eyes. None of the 32 control children had colour vision defects, compared with seven of the matched premature children.
Conclusion:
This adds support to previous speculation that the preterm eye is at risk of subtle visual impairment independent of the occurrence of refractive error, manifest squint, disorders of the fundus and media, and cerebral damage.