Effectiveness of eccentric viewing training for daily visual activities for individuals with age-related macular degeneration: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Eccentric viewing training can be successfully applied in the clinical setting based on positive evidence. Nonetheless, published research should be integrated to provide a conclusive perspective of the efficacy of eccentric viewing training. OBJECTIVE: Meta-analysis was conducted to examine effectiveness of eccentric viewing training on daily visual activities for individuals with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS: The papers used in this study were located through PubMed, Ovid, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, RISS, and KMbase on studies published between January, 1990 and December, 2012. The keywords for searching were "age-related macular degeneration" and "eccentric viewing", "eccentric fixation", "peripheral vision" or "preferred retinal loci". The effect sizes were calculated using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 2.0 and interpreted according to Cohen's criteria. RESULTS: A total of 258 studies were found, among which five papers suited the main selection criteria for final analysis. The entire effect size was 0.660 (95% CI, 0.232 ~ 1.088), indicating a moderate effect size of the eccentric viewing training for individuals with AMD in their daily visual activities (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrated the clinical effectiveness of eccentric viewing training for individuals with AMD. This result should be interpreted cautiously, though, given the possibility of publication bias.