RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Assessing interventions to increase compliance to patching treatment in children with amblyopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis
JF British Journal of Ophthalmology
JO Br J Ophthalmol
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
SP 159
OP 165
DO 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2015-307340
VO 100
IS 2
A1 Sarah Elizabeth Dean
A1 Rachel Clare Povey
A1 Jessica Reeves
YR 2016
UL http://bjo.bmj.com/content/100/2/159.abstract
AB Background/Aims Amblyopia is the most common condition affecting visual acuity in childhood. Left untreated it will not resolve itself, leading to increased risk of blindness. Occluding the good eye with a patch is a highly effective treatment if carried out before age 7 years but compliance is a major problem. This systematic review addresses the question: How effective are existing interventions at increasing compliance to patching treatment in children with amblyopia?Methods Electronic searches were carried out in June 2014 and updated in April 2015 to identify studies reporting primary data on interventions to increase patching compliance. Data screening, extraction and quality ratings were performed independently by two researchers.Results Nine papers were included. Interventions including an educational element (5 studies) significantly increased patching compliance and had higher quality ratings than interventions that changed aspects of the patching regime (3 studies) or involved supervised occlusion (1 study). Meta-analysis was conducted on four studies and indicated that overall interventions involving an educational element have a significant small effect r=0.249, p<0.001.Conclusions Interventions to increase patching compliance should include educational elements. High quality research is needed to further assess the effectiveness of specific elements of educational interventions and additional behaviour change techniques.