Estudo de validação sobre dificuldade visual autorrelatada entre estudantes dos cursos de graduação da Universidade Federal de Pelotas

Abstract

The objectives of the study were to evaluate the prevalence of self-reported visual difficulty among undergraduate students of the Federal University of Pelotas who entered the university in 2017/1, and to validate a question about visual difficulty, through the application of the Snellen chart, in a subsample of the participants in order to establish the sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values for this question. A cross-sectional study was carried out, and the question about visual difficulty was: "Do you have some difficulty to see up close and/or far?" As the gold standard, visual acuity (VA) was measured through the Snellen chart. Patients with VA less than: 20/40, 20/70 or 20/200 in any eye were considered to have reduced VA. The prevalence of self-reported visual difficulty was 37.3% (95%CI: 35.1-39.6) and VA less than 20/40 in any eye was 6.9% (95%CI: 5.3-8.9). The question showed sensitivity of 71.4% (95%CI: 57.8-82,7), specificity of 66.9% (95%CI: 63.4-70,2), positive predictive value of 13.8% (95%CI: 10.0-18.3), and negative predictive value of 96.9% (95%CI: 95,1-98,2). The results indicated a high prevalence of self-reported visual difficulty among university students. The question showed reasonable sensitivity and specificity and may be used for screening for ophthalmological evaluation in epidemiological studies in young university adults.