Original Article March 12, 2025 March 12, 2025

Assessment of proper lighting for patients with low vision at a university rehabilitation center in Brazil

DOI: 10.37039/1982.8551.2025.0012

ABSTRACT

Objective

To assess the best illumination for low vision patients of a vision rehabilitation center.

Methods

A cross-sectional observational study was conducted with patients aged 10 years and older, visual acuity < 20/60 and ≥ 20/200 on the best eye. Four types of lamps of power equivalent to 60 W (halogen, warm LED, daylight LED and white LED). All of them were used in standardized fixtures, and the analysis was performed during the reading activity. The first step included the subjective evaluation, in which each patient would choose the lamp that felt most comfortable for reading. Then, using a standardized handout developed by the Service to train the patient’s reading, an objective evaluation was performed based on the number of words read per minute using each of the lamps studied.

Results

The study sample consisted of 30 patients, of whom 19 (63.3%) were female, with age ranging from 10 to 76 years (Median 17.5 (15.0 – 39.5). The minimum number of Words Read per Minute was 28 and the maximum was 154. The highest number of words read was obtained with the white LED lamp. The highest average was obtained with the yellow LED lamp. The most frequent disease was Congenital Toxoplasmosis, corresponding to 36.7% of the total sample, and more than half of this occurrence was observed in the group of women. The most frequent visual acuity for close proximity was 20/160 (36.4%) for the male gender and 20/100 and 20/200 (26.3% each one) for the female gender. The most frequent subjective choice among men was white LED (45.5%) and, for the female group, it was warm and daylight LED (42.1%). However, the differences between genders is not statistically significant (p-value > 0.05). Only yellow LED has a statistically significant correlation with age (rho = -0.400). The higher the number of words read per minute using the yellow LED, the youngest was the patient. The performance on Words Read per Minute is not related to gender.

Conclusions

The warm LED lamp was the most indicated among low vision patients seen at the vision rehabilitation center. The performance on Words Read per Minute is not related to gender.