Safety concerns raised over people with peripheral field loss

Article

Poor traffic gap judgement in patients with peripheral field loss (PFL) raises important safety concerns for their safety when crossing the road.

Poor traffic gap judgement in patients with peripheral field loss (PFL) raises important safety concerns for their safety when crossing the road, according to a study published online by Optometry & Vision Science.

Allen Cheong and colleagues from The Minnesota Laboratory for Low-Vision Research, University of Minnesota, USA recruited eight subjects with significant PFL and five age-matched control subjects. Each subject was asked to judge when they perceived it to be safe to cross a two-way, four-lane street while they stood on the curb. Eye movements were recorded by an eye tracker and movies of the eye-on-scene were made offline. Fixation patterns were classified into either relevant or irrelevant. Patients' street-crossing behaviour, habitual approach to street crossing and perceived difficulties were also assessed.

Compared with normal vision subjects, the PFL subjects identified 12% fewer crossable gaps while making 23% more errors by identifying a gap as crossable when it was, in fact, too short (p<0.05). These differences may be explained by the significantly smaller fixation area (p=0.006) and fewer fixations distributed to the relevant tasks (p=0.001). The patients' habitual approach to street crossing and perceived difficulties in street crossing were significantly correlated with traffic gap judgment performance.

The poor traffic gap judgment of patients with peripheral field loss raises concerns about their safety in crossing streets.

Newsletter

Join ophthalmologists across Europe—sign up for exclusive updates and innovations in surgical techniques and clinical care.

Recent Videos
Christine Curcio, PhD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine, shares histology update and revised nomenclature for OCT with Sheryl Stevenson of the Eye Care Network and Ophthalmology Times
SriniVas R. Sadda, MD, FARVO, shares key points from his retina presentation at the International SPECTRALIS Symposium
Robert Sergott, MD, describes fluorescence lifetime imaging ophthalmoscopy (FLIO) and the International SPECTRALIS Symposium – And Beyond (ISS) in Heidelberg, Germany.
Rayaz Malik, MBChB, PhD, a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar, spoke with Ophthalmology Times Europe about his presentation. It's titled "An eye on neurodegenerative diseases: Challenging the dogma" at the International SPECTRALIS Sympsoium. In conversation with Hattie Hayes, Ophthalmology Times Europe
Anat Loewenstein, MD, describes her presentation on remote imaging for age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy at the International SPECTRALIS Symposium, in conversation with Hattie Hayes of Ophthalmology Times Europe
Tyson Brunstetter, OD, PhD, a US Navy Aerospace Optometrist at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, shares key takeaways from his keynote at the International SPECTRALIS Symposium (ISS)
Rayaz Malik, MBChB, PhD, shares his presentation, titled An eye on neurodegenerative diseases: Challenging the dogma, at this year's International SPECTRALIS Symposium
At the Retina World Congress, Siegfried Priglinger, MD, speaks about ensuring the best outcomes for preschool-aged patients
At the 2025 ASCRS meeting, Robert Ang, MD said small aperture IOLs can benefit all patients, especially those with complex corneas or who have undergone previous corneal refractive surgery
Viha Vig, MBChB graduate student at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, discusses her poster presentation on the relationship between mitochondiral disease, Alzheimer disease, and other types of dementia.
© 2025 MJH Life Sciences

All rights reserved.