Evaluating the visual experience: visual acuity and the visual analogue scale

Purpose: To attempt a comparison of the visual experience [assessed using a visual analogue scale (VAS)] with visual acuity in a group of normally-sighted adult optometric patients. Methods: A single-item 100 mm paper VAS was administered to a sequence of 142 normally-sighted pre-presbyopic patients. Each individual was invited to indicate their recent subjective distance visual experience between the extremes of 'dreadful' (0 mm) and 'perfect' (100 mm). Each patient's binocular visual acuity was then determined at 6 m using a high-contrast logMAR chart under usual consulting room conditions. Results: A weak association was revealed between the subjective indication of recent visual experience and the actual level of binocular acuity recorded in this normally-sighted group of subjects. On the basis of group responses a statistically significant discontinuity in the scores recorded with the VAS was demonstrated between patients who attained a clinical acuity better or worse than 0.10 logMAR units ((6/)7.5). Patient gender, age, and whether spectacles were habitually worn for distance viewing, were each revealed to be not statistically significant features. Conclusions: For normally-sighted optometric patients the subjective criterion of visual satisfaction would appear to be only loosely associated with the contemporaneous record of clinical acuity.