Compliance in antiamblyopia occlusion therapy

Antiamblyopia occlusion therapy relies on compliance. We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 496 amblyopic subjects. Measures of non-compliance included patient reporting and patient records of broken appointments. Out of 496 subjects, 92 (18%) failed to follow the occlusion regimen. Compliance with treatment was analyzed by age group, refractive error and type of strabismus. The failure rate was 82.6% for the unilateral high myopia group and 37.5% for the monofixation syndrome group. The risk for non-compliance appeared to be higher in the 1 to 2-year-old group (37%). The chi 2-test showed the differences to be highly significant (P less than 0.0001). Children having lower initial visual acuity were also significantly less complaint (P less than 0.007). Several factors such as age, parental understanding, initial visual acuity and improvement rate seem to be involved in compliance.