The Effect of an Educational Program for Persons with Macular Degeneration: A Pilot Study

Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in the United States for persons aged 60 and older. Compared to individuals without disabilities, individuals with low vision demonstrate a 15% to 30% higher dependence on others to perform activities of daily living. In addition, low vision can adversely affect a person's quality of life. Vision rehabilitation has been shown to improve the performance of everyday activities and to increase the quality of life of people with low vision. However, a standard of care has not been established for low vision rehabilitation, and most outcome studies have focused on individual, rather than on group, rehabilitation. This article reports a pilot study whose purpose was threefold. First, the authors sought to pilot-test a new instrument that measures independence in activities of daily living, the Smith's Activity of Daily Living Independence Survey (hereafter Smith's), which is in the early stages of development and is being designed specifically for use with people with low vision. Second, they sought to pilot-test an educational program that has been developed specifically for a low vision population to determine if it needs to be altered to be more effective when used with people with low vision. Third, they wanted to determine if the methodology that they used in the study needed to be revised so that the effects of an educational program on the independence of persons with macular degeneration in everyday activities can be more effectively determined by identifying factors that may affect the strength of any treatment effect. The research hypothesis was this: Individuals with low vision who receive the educational program will demonstrate higher change scores in independence in their activities of daily living than will individuals with low vision who do not receive the educational program. To obtain additional information about the educational program if the research hypothesis was confirmed, the following research question was posed: Which of the six sections of the Smith's was responsible for the overall score of the Smith's being statistically significant?