The effects of accommodative facility training on a group of children with impaired relative accommodation—a comparison between dioptric treatment and sham treatment

The effects of accommodative facility training were evaluated by comparing training with plano lenses and +/-2.00 D lens flipper sets. Thirteen children with symptoms and signs of accommodative dysfunction were included in the study. Seven started with 2 weeks of plano lens training before proceeding to traditional dioptric flipper training; later, one patient from this group was lost to follow-up. The remaining six children used powered flipper training from the start. The positive (PRA) and negative relative accommodation (NRA) were examined every second week. During the initial training period both the PRA and the NRA decreased in the sham treatment group (P = 0.010 and P= 0.102, respectively), while the PRA and the NRA increased during the dioptric training in both groups (P = 0.102 and P = 0.033, respectively). The result of this study indicates that accommodative facility training has a real effect on the amplitude of relative accommodation in patients with impaired relative accommodation.