An Analysis of the Optometric Applicant Pool Relative to Matriculants.

SIGNIFICANCE: The interplay of applicants to optometry school and matriculants has not been explored systematically. It is vital that the profession examines these trends to ensure a viable pipeline of future doctors of optometry. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the demographics and academic qualifications of entering optometry classes from autumn 2010 through autumn 2018 of U.S.-based optometric institutions' application pool and matriculants (enrollees). METHODS: Data were gathered from reports generated from accredited schools and colleges of optometry in the United States and compiled by the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (publicly available) and the Optometry Centralized Application Service. Metrics included the annual number of verified applicants, the annual number of matriculants, the home region of U.S.-based applicants, and the Optometry Admission Test (OAT) performance and grade point average of verified applicants. RESULTS: The number of verified applicants for autumn 2018 was 0.95% higher than that for autumn 2010, yet the number of matriculants in 2018 compared with 2010 increased by 11.2% with an applicant-to-matriculant ratio in 2010 of 1.53 compared with 1.39 in 2018. Grade point average and academic average OAT scores were stable from 2010 to 2018. The ratios of verified applicants with an academic average OAT score of at least 300 to matriculants were 0.87 for autumn 2018 and 0.92 for autumn 2010. The ratios of verified applicants with a grade point average of at least 3.00 to matriculants were 1.13 for autumn 2018 and 1.23 for autumn 2015. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence supports the conclusion that the applicant pool has remained essentially flat for the last decade, whereas the number of matriculants has increased substantially; thus, the number of qualified applicants to matriculants has logically decreased. In the last 2 years, optometric programs have responded by decreasing their institution's number of matriculants to accommodate the national trends.

Military readiness: an exploration of the relationship between marksmanship and visual acuity.

The United States military relies on visual acuity standards to assess enlistment induction and military occupational specialty eligibility, as well as to monitor soldiers' combat vision readiness. However, these vision standards are not evidence based and may not accurately reflect appropriate standards for military readiness or reflect a correlation between visual acuity and occupational performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between visual acuity and marksmanship performance using a single blind trial with the Engagement Skills Trainer 2000. Marksmanship performance was evaluated in 28 subjects under simulated day and night conditions with habitual spectacle prescription and contact lenses that created visual blur. Panel Poisson regression using an independent correlation structure revealed significant differences (p < 0.001) as visual acuity decreased from 20/25 to 20/50. We conclude that marksmanship performance decreases as visual acuity decreases. We believe that this relationship supports the use of a visual acuity requirement.

Visual acuity and "balanced progressive" simultaneous vision multifocal contact lenses.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate how add power affects binocular distance visual acuity in subjects wearing simultaneous vision, balanced progressive, multifocal contact lenses. METHODS: Twenty-five young normally sighted subjects were fit binocularly, according to the manufacturers' fitting nomogram, with CooperVision Proclear Multifocal contact lenses. A multifactorial experimental design was used to study distance visual acuity measured to the single letter with repeated measures on add power (+1.00, +1.50, +2.00, +2.50), light level (photopic and mesopic), and Bailey-Lovie chart contrast (high and low). RESULTS: The relationship between add power and visual acuity was analyzed by linear regression for each of the 4 test conditions. The corresponding mean decrease in equivalent Snellen visual acuity from 20/16 to 20/17 between the +1.00 and +2.50 add powers for the photopic light level, high contrast test condition was not significant (F = 3.068, P=0.083). However, the change in visual acuity from 20/24 to 20/27 between the same add powers for the low contrast, photopic test condition was significant (P=0.048), as was the loss in visual acuity from 20/24 to 20/28 for the high contrast, mesopic test condition (P=0.005) and the reduction from 20/45 to 20/61 for the low contrast, mesopic light level test condition (P=1.5 x 10). Pupil diameter averaged 3.9 +/- 0.07 mm and 6.2 +/- 0.12 mm under photopic and mesopic light levels, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Distance visual acuity averaged better than 20/20 for all add powers under high contrast, high illumination test conditions and decreased by a small, but significant amount, under other testing conditions.

Accommodative response to PRIO Computer Vision Tester versus printed text.

BACKGROUND: Video display terminals (VDTs) have Gaussian display characteristics. Research suggests that patients accommodate differently to Gaussian images. In the present study, we asked if the accommodative response to the PRIO Computer Vision Tester (a Gaussian image) is different than the accommodative response to a Monocular Estimation Method (MEM) printed text target. METHOD: A normally sighted prepresbyopic group of subjects (N = 60) was recruited from the student body of Nova Southeastern University. Low neutral retinoscopy was performed on each subject at a distance of 50 cm. using both the PRIO vision tester and an MEM target. RESULTS: The PRIO vision tester and the printed text provided essentially the same measures of accommodative response. In addition, the luminance of the PRIO dropped by nearly 40% over the course of 1 hour of intermittent use. CONCLUSION: The PRIO vision tester and traditional nearpoint retinoscopy provided essentially the same measures of accommodative response in prepresbyopic subjects. Further studies should be considered to evaluate whether the change in luminance of the PRIO system has any effect on the measurement of accommodative response.

The effects of optical defocus on the legibility of the Tumbling-E and Landolt-C.

BACKGROUND: The Tumbling-E and Landolt-C are both used to test visual acuity in young, illiterate, or non-English-speaking patients. In this study, we sought to determine how optical blur affects visual acuity thresholds measured with both of these optotypes. METHODS: Ten subjects were tested with 4-position Tumbling-E and Landolt-Cs using the method of constant stimuli. The subjects were tested wearing their habitual corrections and with +1.50 D spherical and cylindrical lenses to simulate myopic refractive errors in the optical blur test conditions. RESULTS: Visual acuity thresholds for the Tumbling-E were slightly better for all test conditions, while the largest threshold difference between the test letters was found for the simulated against-the-rule astigmatism. For both test letters, vertical orientations were more difficult to resolve than horizontal. Also, the slopes of the psychometric functions were steeper for the Tumbling-E than for the Landolt-C. CONCLUSIONS: The Tumbling-E can be considered comparable with the Landolt-C except for the simulated against-the-rule-astigmatism test condition. Although the ranges are quite large, the average psychometric functions of the Landolt-Cs are flatter, which gives rise to the possibility that more confidence can be placed in the visual acuity thresholds obtained with the Tumbling-E.