Volume 6 | Issue 1 | 2018, February Optometry & Visual Performance 31 Article 4 Binocular Measurements in a Nonselected Group of Non- strabismic Patients 8-35 Years Old, in Sweden Göran Skjöld, Optometrist, MSc Clinical Optometry, Malmö, Sweden Alexandra Skjöld, Optometrist, MSc Clinical Optometry, Malmö, Sweden Gustav Brinkby, Optometrist, MSc Clinical Optometry, Helsingborg, Sweden Yuanji Cheng, PhD, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden ABSTRACT Background: To investigate binocular fndings in a nonselected group of patients examined in optometric practice, and in this group to analyze the frequency of meeting the criteria for convergence and accommodative insufciency. Methods: In this national multi center study, 159 patients that voluntarily made appointments for visual examination and were found to meet the inclusion criteria, were examined following a specifed protocol that included answering a questionnaire, a series of tests with the habitual correction, followed by refraction and specifed sequence of binocular measurements. Results: Mean values and standard deviation for all measurements were compared with expected values according to commonly used optometric norms. Te binocular fndings closely followed Morgans norms of expected values. Te frequency of meeting the criteria for convergence insufciency and accommodative insufciency was analyzed for the total group and for three age groups. For convergence insufciency the frequency was 9.4% for the total group (n=159), 11.9% for 8-15 years of age (n=42), 6.6% for 16-25 years of age (n=61) and 10.0% for 26-35 years of age (n=56). For accommodative insufciency the frequency was 17.6% in the total group (n=159), 50.0% for 8-15 years of age (n=42), 9.0% for 16-25 years of age (n=61) and 2.0% for 26-35 years of age (n=56). Conclusion: Te frequency of meeting the criteria for primary convergence insufciency and accommodative insufciency was found to be high in the examined population, compared to other studies. For patients 8-15 years of age, positive relative convergence for near (40cm), negative relative accommodation and accommodative amplitude were below expected values and the criteria for accommodative insufciency was signifcantly more met in the group (p<0.001). Keywords: accommodative insufciency, binocular vision, convergence insufciency Introduction It is estimated that the majority of primary examinations of eyes and vision in Sweden are performed by optometrists. 1 Te symptoms of visual problems may be due to diferent causes, including defciencies in binocular vision. Te Convergence Insufciency Treatment Trial (2005) evaluated symptoms in children with convergence insufciency before and after diferent regiments of treatment. Several international studies 2-6 describe the prevalence of binocular vision dysfunction. In these studies, that use diferent criteria for convergence and accommodative insufciency, the reported prevalence of convergence insufciency and accommodative insufciency reported are in the range 3.6%- 6.0% and 2.4%-15.0% respectively when comparing similar criteria for the diagnoses respectively. One of the studies, 2 found the prevalence of convergence and accommodative insufciency were the most common, with 5.% and 11.4% respectively. Another study 3 looked at convergence insufciency in 5th and 6th graders, and found that when using criteria for defnitive convergence insufciency (at least 3 of 4 signs being present), 4.2% were defned as having convergence insufciency and that among them, accommodative insufciency was present in a majority of them (78.9%). In a study 4 that looked at clinically signifcant convergence insufciency in patients 8-12 years of age, the prevalence for convergence insufciency was 17.6%. Association between symptoms and convergence insufciency and accommodative insufciency in children 8-15 years of age was analyzed in one study 5 and in this study convergence insufciency and accommodative insufciency was 4.6% and 10.5% respectively and it was found that both diagnoses are associated with increasing symptoms. One study 6 examined the frequency of convergence and accommodative insufciency in a group of patients with a mean age of 21.3 years, but the range of age was not reported in the study. In the study, the frequencies for convergence and accommodative insufciency was 3.6% and 2.4% respectively. In the Nordic countries there are, to our knowledge, no reports based on a comprehensive optometric examination. However, in Sweden, there is one study 7 of some binocular fndings in patients with dyslexia compared to a control group.