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. 2024 Dec;56(1):2422053.
doi: 10.1080/07853890.2024.2422053. Epub 2024 Nov 4.

An international survey of optometric management of stroke survivors

Amritha Stalin  1   2 , Tammy Labreche  1   2 , Susan J Leat  1   2
Affiliations

An international survey of optometric management of stroke survivors

Amritha Stalin et al. Ann Med. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: A survey was conducted to describe the current status of optometric awareness and involvement regarding post-stroke management as literature suggests that visual impairment often goes undiagnosed and unmanaged in stroke survivors.

Materials and methods: A questionnaire was developed by the researchers, pilot tested by 5 other optometric researchers and 15 optometrists and modified based on the feedback. Practicing optometrists were invited to complete the anonymous online survey through optometric organizations in Canada, Hong Kong, India, UK, and US.

Results: Results showed that the majority of optometrists (61%) see 1-5 post-stroke patients per month, although 15% report seeing none. In all cases, optometrists referred stroke patients to other health care professionals more often than receiving incoming referrals from them. About 21% of all respondents were already fully involved in post-stroke vision care and 57% were interested in being more involved. Limiting factors to seeing more post-stroke patients included resources (29.8%), funding (25.8%), awareness (25.1%), and interest (9.8%). There was consensus among respondents in all countries that optometrists should be members of post-stroke care teams.

Conclusion: Optometrists are well suited to provide post-stroke visual rehabilitation but are often not included in care teams for these patients. As a result, the visual management of post-stroke patients often is unaddressed.

Keywords: Cardiovascular accidents; optometrists; stroke; vision care; vision rehabilitation.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Places of post-stroke vision management in their locality. The percentage of responses in each country is plotted. Participants could choose more than one response, so that cumulative percentage may be greater than 100%.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Percentage of optometrists who reported that an assessment is important versus percentage actually conducted an assessment for post-stroke individuals.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Percentage of optometrists who reported an intervention is important versus percentage actually conducted an intervention for post-stroke individuals.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Status of coordination of optometrists with other professionals in the post-stroke care team.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Country-specific data regarding the changes required for better involvement. The percentage of responses in each country is plotted. Participants could choose more than one response, so that cumulative percentages may be greater than 100%.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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