Efficacy of Coloured Overlays and Lenses for Reading Difficulty

NCT ID: NCT02680223

Last Updated: 2020-01-27

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

40 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2016-01-31

Study Completion Date

2019-12-31

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

This is a randomised controlled trial with the aim of testing the efficacy of coloured overlays and coloured lenses for the relief of visual stress and reading difficulties in children and young adults.

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Participants will be adults aged from 8 years, with symptoms of visual stress (discomfort when reading or experiencing perceptual symptoms when reading such as letters moving or distorted) or with a diagnosed reading difficulty (dyslexia). Participants will be recruited from the City University London optometry clinic and the City University London Learning Success unit. Participants within this age range and with visual stress will be eligible to participate. Potential participants with an ocular or systemic condition with possible impact on vision (e.g. amblyopia or diabetes respectively) or with intellectual disability will be excluded from the study. Each potential participant will undergo an eye examination prior to participation, during which the following tests will be conducted:

Prior to study entry:

History and symptoms Direct ophthalmoscopy (to check for ocular abnormality) Retinoscopy and subjective refraction (to quantify corrected and uncorrected refractive error) Cover tests (to look for any eye misalignment)

Baseline tests on study entry:

Each eligible participant who agrees to take part in the study will undergo testing with coloured overlays, to determine whether a particular overlay appears to be beneficial in terms of reducing difficulty or discomfort while reading. If so, the participant will be provided with the overlay to use for a period of two weeks, to determine whether it is consistently beneficial when reading during that period. In addition, the Wilkins Rate of Reading Test (WRRT) will be carried out at this baseline stage with and without the overlay.

Follow-up test 1:

The participant will attend a further appointment at the two week time point, and if the overlay was beneficial, an addition test will be carried out using the Intuitive Colorimeter, to determine the exact hue, saturation and intensity of coloured lenses that offer the most relief from difficulty or discomfort while reading. Once this colour has been determined, the hue will be modified to find the closest colour at which the participant first loses benefit (the point at which the discomfort or difficulty returns). Each colour setting (beneficial and non-beneficial) will be noted and the participant will be provided with spectacle lenses tinted exactly to one of these colour specifications. In a crossover design, the order in which true or control lenses will be provided to each participant will be determined by random number generation. Allocation will be carried out by personnel who are not researchers on this study, and who know the order (true lens tint first or second) as 1 and 2. Ordering of tinted spectacles will be handled by the personnel who are not researchers on the study, and this information will not be accessible by the researchers. Thus, tinted lens ordering will not be shared with the researchers, who will not know whether each participant is wearing the beneficial or non-beneficial tint, and so will be masked. Similarly, participants will be unaware whether they are wearing the true or control tint, at any time during their participation. The non-beneficial tint will be very similar to the beneficial tint, so neither researchers nor participants will be able to determine this. On this occasion the participant will also be asked to describe the difficulties he/she has experiences when reading with and without the coloured overlay.

Follow-up test 2:

After one month wearing the first pair of tinted lenses, reading speed will be measured again with the first pair of tinted lenses, and the participant will be asked again about their experience of reading difficulties while wearing these glasses. The participant will be asked to spend one week without any tinted lenses, and to return for a further visit after that week. After this period, the second pair of tinted lenses will be provided, to be worn for a further month.

Follow-up test 3:

Reading speed will be measured again with the second pair of tinted lenses and the participant will again be asked about their experience of reading difficulties while wearing these glasses.

Statistical analysis The main outcome measures are rates of reading provided by the two reading tests, with the two tinted lens types, the overlay, and without any tint. These are quantitative tests and the results will be compared between the two groups using an unpaired t-test, and within individuals (between baseline and follow-up tests) using a repeated measures analysis of variance. In addition, qualitative data are obtained from participants' descriptions of their experience of reading difficulty at different stages of the study. These responses will be analysed using NVivo software to look for themes.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Vision Disorders Reading Disabilities

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

CROSSOVER

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

DOUBLE

Participants Investigators

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

Precision tinted lenses

Precision tinted lenses will be provided for one month.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Precision tinted lenses

Intervention Type DEVICE

Tinted lens for patient with reading difficulty or visual stress

Non-beneficial tinted lenses

Tinted lenses at a colour different from but not easily distinguishable from the precision tinted will be provided for one month.

Group Type SHAM_COMPARATOR

Non-beneficial tinted lenses

Intervention Type DEVICE

Tinted lenses that are unlikely to help reading difficulty or visual stress

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

Precision tinted lenses

Tinted lens for patient with reading difficulty or visual stress

Intervention Type DEVICE

Non-beneficial tinted lenses

Tinted lenses that are unlikely to help reading difficulty or visual stress

Intervention Type DEVICE

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

* Individuals with visual stress or reading disability aged 8 years and over.

Exclusion Criteria

* Ocular or systemic disease
* Intellectual disability
Minimum Eligible Age

8 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

100 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.

City, University of London

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

Identify the individual or organization who holds primary responsibility for the study information submitted to regulators.

Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Learn about the lead researchers overseeing the trial and their institutional affiliations.

Catherine Suttle

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

City, University of London

Locations

Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.

City University London

London, , United Kingdom

Site Status

Countries

Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.

United Kingdom

References

Explore related publications, articles, or registry entries linked to this study.

Wilkins AJ, Evans BJ, Brown JA, Busby AE, Wingfield AE, Jeanes RJ, Bald J. Double-masked placebo-controlled trial of precision spectral filters in children who use coloured overlays. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 1994 Oct;14(4):365-70.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 7845693 (View on PubMed)

Evans BJ, Stevenson SJ. The Pattern Glare Test: a review and determination of normative values. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2008 Jul;28(4):295-309. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-1313.2008.00578.x.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 18565084 (View on PubMed)

Bouldoukian J, Wilkins AJ, Evans BJ. Randomised controlled trial of the effect of coloured overlays on the rate of reading of people with specific learning difficulties. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2002 Jan;22(1):55-60. doi: 10.1046/j.1475-1313.2002.00002.x.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 11829008 (View on PubMed)

Monger L, Wilkins A, Allen P. Identifying visual stress during a routine eye examination. J Optom. 2015 Apr-Jun;8(2):140-5. doi: 10.1016/j.optom.2014.10.001. Epub 2014 Nov 11.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 25455572 (View on PubMed)

Allen PM, Dedi S, Kumar D, Patel T, Aloo M, Wilkins AJ. Accommodation, pattern glare, and coloured overlays. Perception. 2012;41(12):1458-67. doi: 10.1068/p7390.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 23586285 (View on PubMed)

Wilkins AJ, Jeanes RJ, Pumfrey PD, Laskier M. Rate of Reading Test: its reliability, and its validity in the assessment of the effects of coloured overlays. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 1996 Nov;16(6):491-7.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 8944196 (View on PubMed)

Creavin AL, Lingam R, Steer C, Williams C. Ophthalmic abnormalities and reading impairment. Pediatrics. 2015 Jun;135(6):1057-65. doi: 10.1542/peds.2014-3622.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 26009619 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.

BA_2015

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

More Related Trials

Additional clinical trials that may be relevant based on similarity analysis.

Myopia Prevention With Reading Glasses
NCT05030103 NOT_YET_RECRUITING NA