Establishing Normative Values for Amplitude of Accommodation and Accommodative Facility among University Students in Malawi

Aim: The study aimed to examine the distribution of Accommodative Facility (AF) and Amplitude of Accommodation (AA) and compare the findings with established guidelines.

Place and Duration of Study: Mzuzu University, Malawi. Between May and July 2022.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among students at Mzuzu university in Malawi. We recruited 77 students using a stratified random sampling technique. The participants' age ranged from 16 to 35 years of age. We measured AA using the push-up method while AF was measured using +/- 1.50 Diopters (D) flippers. Both techniques utilized black reading material on white background held at 40 centimeters (cm). Next, we measured the accommodation facility by counting the number of Cycles per Minute (c/m). We utilized the Pearson correlation test and the One-way ANOVA where appropriate. The value of p< 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: The participants comprised 44 (57.1%) males and 33 (42.9%) females. Monocular AA was 10.04D (SD=2.71) and Binocular AA was 10.51 (3.641). The difference was statistically significant (p=0.04). While Monocular AF and Binocular AF were 9 c/m (SD= SD=1.84) and 8.96 (SD=1.539) respectively but the difference was non-significant (p=0.868). AF and AA were not significantly different between males and females. All the parameters decreased with age. The measured AA was significantly higher than using Hofstetter’s formula.

Conclusion: The study provides a cut-off value for practitioners diagnosing Accommodation anomalies. However, indices in the study differ from the well-established guidelines hence practitioners should endeavor to perform the clinical assessment instead of relying on equations.