Motor skills of children with unilateral visual impairment in the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Marianne Celano, Emory University; E. Eugenie Hartmann, University of Alabama; Lindreth Dubois, Emory University; Carolyn Drews-Botsch, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2016-02-01
• Publisher: Wiley: 12 months
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2016 Mac Keith Press.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.12832
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology
• ISSN: 0012-1622
• Volume: 58
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 154
• End Page: 159
• Grant/Funding Information: All phases of this study were supported by a grant from the National Eye Institute (# U10 EY013287 and U10 EY13272).
• Keywords: CATARACT; CONTACT-LENS; MONOCULAR APHAKIA; Neurosciences & Neurology; AGE; RANDOMIZED CLINICAL-TRIAL; Science & Technology; Pediatrics; AMBLYOPIA; STEREOPSIS; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; ACUITY; INTRAOCULAR-LENS CORRECTION; Clinical Neurology
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Opthamology; Health Sciences, General; Health Sciences, Human Development

Abstract

Aim: To assess motor functioning in children aged 4 years 6 months enrolled in the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study, and to determine contributions of visual acuity and stereopsis to measured motor skills. Method: One hundred and four children (53% female) with unilateral aphakia randomized to intraocular lens or contact lens treatment were evaluated at 4 years 6 months (age range 4y 6mo-4y 11mo) for monocular recognition visual acuity, motor skills, and stereopsis by a traveling examiner masked to treatment condition. Motor skills were assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children - Second Edition (MABC-2). Visual acuity was operationalized as log10 of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) value for treated eye, best logMAR value for either eye, and intraocular logMAR difference. Results: Student's t-tests showed no significant differences in MABC-2 scores between the intraocular lens and contact lens groups. The mean total score was low (6.43; 18th centile) compared with the normative reference group. Motor functioning was not related to visual acuity in the treated eye or to intraocular logMAR difference, but was predicted in a regression model by the better visual acuity of either eye (usually the fellow eye), even after accounting for the influence of age at surgery, examiner, orthotropic ocular alignment, and stereopsis. Interpretation: Children with unilateral congenital cataract may have delayed motor functioning at 4 years 6 months, which may adversely affect their social and academic functioning.