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Results for “Persons with Visual Disabilities”

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At least 865 records · Page 48Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Comparison of visual assessment tests in multiply handicapped children.

The aims of this study were to compare acuity estimates achieved with visual evoked potential (VEP) and acuity card techniques and to examine the success rates of each test in a group of multiply handicapped children. Subjects were 52 children (3-183 months) with multiple handicaps associated with prematurity (n = 17), congenital anomalies (n = 16), hypoxic insult (n = 10) and other disorders (n = 9). Success rates for completing the tests were: VEP 88% and acuity cards 85% (Keeler or Cardiff). The acuity card tests were less likely to be successfully completed in the severely disabled (p < 0.05) and in those children with nystagmus (p < 0.05). When both acuity cards were successful, results agreed to within +/- 1.75 octaves. Acuity card thresholds were significantly correlated with VEP thresholds (p < 0.02), but thresholds achieved with VEPs were better in children with poor vision.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Abnormal optokinetic and perceptual span parameters in cerebellar-vestibular dysfunction and learning disabilities or dyslexia.

To measure the ocular fixation and sequential scanning dysfunction assumed responsible for the visual reading symptoms which characterize dyslexia or learning disabilities, an optokinetically based tracking method was devised. This method quantitatively demonstrated significantly reduced fixation, tracking, and perceptual or visual-span scores as well as "movement illusions" for 70 cerebellar-vestibular dysfunctioning persons with learning disabilities vs 70 controls. Such data tended to validate the hypothesis that cerebellar-vestibular-determined fixation and tracking mechanisms predispose dyslexic or learning disabled individuals to visual reading disorders. Moreover, a newly revised method is presented which may prove useful in rapidly screening and diagnosing cerebellar-vestibular-determined reading and learning disorders from those of other origins. Additional independent studies using significantly larger samples and asymptomatic or "normal" controls are required for further validation and development of the method.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Visual hallucinations in patients with retinal disease.

PURPOSE: To investigate the prevalence and phenomenologic nature of visual hallucinations among patients with retinal disease and to investigate whether presence of hallucinations is a significant predictor of functional status, quality of life, and/or emotional distress after adjusting for visual acuity. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: Eighty-six consecutive patients at the Wilmer Ophthalmologic Institute Retinal Vascular Center were interviewed using the Sickness Impact Profile, Community Disability Scale, General Health Questionnaire, Visual Phenomena Interview, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status. RESULTS: The prevalence of visual hallucinations was 15.1%. Most were formed hallucinations in clear consciousness that lasted for seconds to minutes. The majority of patients had been experiencing visual hallucinations for less than 1 year (61.5%) or for 1 to 2 years (23.1%). Only two of the 13 patients with hallucinations had informed a physician of their hallucinations. Univariate analyses revealed that variables significantly associated with experiencing hallucinations were female sex, worse visual acuity, bilateral visual impairment, emotional distress, decreased functional status, and decreased quality of life. Regression analysis demonstrated that among patients with relatively good vision, those who experienced hallucinations were more emotionally distressed and had a lower quality of life than patients without hallucinations. CONCLUSIONS: Visual hallucinations among patients with retinal disease are common, underdiagnosed, and not associated with cognitive deficits, abnormal personality traits, or a family or personal history of psychiatric morbidity. Among patients with relatively good vision, hallucinations are associated with increased emotional distress and decreased quality of life.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗
PubMed1987

[Functionally adapted office furniture for handicapped patients].

Individually adapted, functional office furniture is not only capable of making physically or sensorily handicapped persons more independent but also enhances their performance. These effects combine to bring about greater personal freedom, making it unnecessary for the handicapped individual to ask for help ever so often. Different types of disability may require totally different technical solutions. The present contribution deals with various office furniture programmes adapted specifically to the needs of certain types of handicap, such as those of wheelchair users, visually impaired or blind persons, hand amputees, or cerebral palsied persons. Examples are described of disability-adapted office designs both for training purposes and workplaces, including CAD or a specifically designed arrangement for technical drawing with the feet. The main objective is to show that individual functional losses can already be compensated for to a large extent by proper selection of commercially available furniture and workplace design.

Computers↗
PubMed1995

Women, men, and osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: Gender differences in the prevalence and impact of arthritis are discussed, using data and analytic results from national health surveys. RESULTS: Most cases of arthritis are osteoarthritis, an ancient disease that causes pain, physical dysfunction, and social disability, but not death. Arthritis prevalence rates rise sharply with age; it is the leading chronic condition in mid and late life. Women's rates exceed men's at all ages. Women's higher rates of disability and medical services for arthritis in the population are due mainly to higher prevalence. Among persons with arthritis, women are only a little more likely than men to be disabled or receive medical services. Persons with arthritis often have other chronic conditions as well (called comorbidity). Combining arthritis and visual problems gives a strong exacerbating push to disability. CONCLUSIONS: Because biomedical research emphasizes pathogenesis and therapies for fatal conditions, Americans' health future will become dominated by nonfatal ones, especially arthritis. I recommend a better balance and new orientation for arthritis research that stays true to older persons' health and disability experience.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

The effect of mental retardation and schizophrenia on information processing.

Research Diagnostic Criteria-diagnosed schizophrenic persons with average intelligence and dual diagnosis mentally retarded schizophrenic persons were tested in a forced-choice letter discrimination task in order to examine the relationship between schizophrenia and retardation from the standpoint of information-processing theory. The subjects consisted of eight schizophrenic persons of average or better intelligence, eight mentally retarded schizophrenic persons, and a control group of eight Research Diagnostic Criteria-diagnosed minor depressive individuals who were matched with the nonretarded schizophrenic group for intelligence. The groups did not differ significantly on the minimum exposure duration needed to identify an unmasked target stimulus at criterion levels of accuracy. When masked stimuli were employed, however, the depressive group obtained significantly more correct detections than both schizophrenic groups. More importantly, the performance of the two schizophrenic groups did not differ significantly. Our data indicated that schizophrenic deficits in information processing are independent of intellectual factors. Thus, vulnerability to a masking stimulus in schizophrenic persons can be attributed to the pathology of schizophrenia. This vulnerability indicates that schizophrenic patients are slow information processors.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical presentation of the "depression-executive dysfunction syndrome" of late life.

It has been proposed that a "depression-executive dysfunction (DED) syndrome" occurs in late life. This assertion was based on clinical, neuropathological, and neuroimaging findings suggesting that frontostriatal dysfunctions contribute to the development of both depression and executive dysfunction and influence the course of depression. The authors describe the clinical presentation of DED and its relationship to disability, studying 126 elderly subjects with major depression and evaluating depressive symptoms, cognitive functioning, disability, and personality dimensions. Patients with the DED syndrome had reduced fluency, impaired visual naming, paranoia, loss of interest in activities, and psychomotor retardation, but showed a rather mild vegetative syndrome. Depressive symptomatology, and especially psychomotor retardation and loss of interest in activities, contributed to disability in DED patients, whereas paranoia was associated with disability independently of executive dysfunction. These findings may aid clinicians in identifying patients needing vigilant follow-up, because depression with executive dysfunction was found to be associated with disability, poor treatment response, relapse, and recurrence.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

The health of the workers in a rapidly developing country: effects of occupational exposure to noise and heat.

Occupational hygiene and safety have not been high on the agenda of industrial management in developing countries for a variety of reasons. This cross-sectional study was undertaken to assess the exposure to noise and heat, and to study the level of occupational hygiene practiced, at a foundry in a rapidly developing country (Dubai, United Arab Emirates). Audiometry, muscle cramps and visual acuity were measured in workers at a foundry and compared with the results from workers at a soft-drink bottling plant. Thermal stress, relative humidity, ventilation, illumination and noise levels were measured at different work units at the foundry and at the soft-drink bottling factory. Thermal stress index was high while relative humidity and ventilation were low at the foundry compared with the bottling plant. Noise levels were also high at the foundry, exceeding 90 dB at almost all work units except the fabrication workshop. Mild or moderate visual defects were observed among 31% of foundry workers, compared with 19% of the bottling plant workers.Muscle cramps were reported by 30% of all workers at the foundry, compared with 5% at the bottling plant. Visual disability was the highest among furnace operators and fabricators. Mean hearing disability was 8.69 +/- 1.08% among foundry workers, compared with 4.56 +/- 0.82% among bottling plant workers. The high thermal stress, noise levels and exposure to non-ionizing radiations at the foundry might have contributed to the higher frequency of muscle cramps and the greater hearing and visual disabilities, respectively, among these workers. Non-use of personal protective equipment and poor occupational hygiene and safety measures were also seen to affect eye and ear health adversely among the workers at the foundry.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗