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Purpose-The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of residential blind rehabilitation on patients' vision targeted health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and general physical and mental function.Methods-The National Eye Institute 25-item Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ) plus appendix questions, the 12 item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12), Hope Scale and Coopersmith self-esteem inventory were administered to 206 legally blind veterans prior to their entering a residential (in-patient) blind rehabilitation program and again to 185 and 176 of the original cohort at two and six months after completion of the rehabilitation program, respectively. Data on visual acuity, visual field extent, contrast sensitivity and scanning ability were also collected. The duration of the in-patient rehabilitation programs ranged from 11-109 days. Questionnaire scores were compared pre-rehabilitation and post-rehabilitation.Results-Following rehabilitation there was a significant improvement in nine of eleven NEI VFQ subscales and in a composite score at both 2-and 6-month post-rehab intervals. Mental health (SF-12) and self esteem also improved significantly although physical health ratings declined over the course of the study (approximately 10 months).Conclusions-Residential blind rehabilitation appears to improve patients' self-reported visiontargeted HRQOL, self-esteem, and mental health aspects of generic HRQOL.

Effects of practicing on feature search tasks (a 2 degrees square target amid 1 degrees square distracters) for 5 days were compared between 45 visually impaired (VI) subjects with severe to profound low vision and 23 age-matched normal controls (NV). Search accuracy and speed improved in both groups. VI subjects had larger training gains than NV subjects, but their proportional gains were similar to that of NV subjects. There were no significant differences in training effect at different set sizes in both groups. Search performance on a 40 degrees field improved more than that on a 10 degrees or 20 degrees field in VI subjects, but not in NV subjects. No significant change was found between day 5 and 1-month follow-up. The fact that feature search training is equally efficient in VI and NV subjects encourages development of general purpose perceptual training protocols for low vision rehabilitation.

Feature search performance was measured in visually impaired (VI) and age-matched controls with normal vision (NV). All VI subjects were legally blind. The task was to search for a 2 degrees x 2 degrees square target among smaller 1 degrees x1 degrees distracters. Targets and distracters were white and presented on a dark background that subtended 69 degrees by 58 degrees . Three field-sizes (10 degrees , 20 degrees , and 40 degrees ) and three set sizes (8-, 16-, and 32-items) were tested. The VI subjects searched more slowly than the NV subjects, but the reaction time of both groups of subjects did not rise with increasing number of items. The latter is consistent with a parallel search. Both groups searched more slowly when field-size increased, but the VI group was affected more by the increase than the NV group.