Multifocal lenses not ideal for night driving
People who wear multifocal contact lenses have more difficulty driving at night than those who wear glasses.
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People who wear multifocal contact lenses have more difficulty driving at night than those who wear glasses.
Multifocal lenses correct near vision problems (presbyopia), a condition that becomes more common after the age of 40 and results in the inability to focus on objects up close.
To investigate the effect of various presbyopic vision corrections on nighttime driving performance, researchers studied 11 volunteers, aged 45 to 64 years in America, who drove on a closed circuit driving track at night. Performance was measured for five areas: road sign recognition, road hazard recognition and avoidance, lane keeping, near target recognition and distance to recognize standard street signs.
Wearing multifocal contact lenses resulted in significantly slower driving speeds at night, compared with wearing progressive addition glasses. Even at slower speeds, contact lens wearers were less able to recognize road hazards. They also had to be closer to road signs to read them, potentially decreasing the time they have to react to information on the signs.
The findings show that presbyopic vision corrections worn by naive, unadapted wearers affected nighttime driving. The researchers suggest that for those patients who drive long distances and hours at night, practitioners should carefully consider the best form of correction of presbyopia. They recommended such people to use multifocal contact lenses for daytime use and a different correction for driving at night.
Multifocal lenses correct near vision problems (presbyopia), a condition that becomes more common after the age of 40 and results in the inability to focus on objects up close.
To investigate the effect of various presbyopic vision corrections on nighttime driving performance, researchers studied 11 volunteers, aged 45 to 64 years in America, who drove on a closed circuit driving track at night. Performance was measured for five areas: road sign recognition, road hazard recognition and avoidance, lane keeping, near target recognition and distance to recognize standard street signs.
Wearing multifocal contact lenses resulted in significantly slower driving speeds at night, compared with wearing progressive addition glasses. Even at slower speeds, contact lens wearers were less able to recognize road hazards. They also had to be closer to road signs to read them, potentially decreasing the time they have to react to information on the signs.
The findings show that presbyopic vision corrections worn by naive, unadapted wearers affected nighttime driving. The researchers suggest that for those patients who drive long distances and hours at night, practitioners should carefully consider the best form of correction of presbyopia. They recommended such people to use multifocal contact lenses for daytime use and a different correction for driving at night.
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