design and validation of persian near reading card: a pilot study

purpose : design and establishment of persian near reading card for clinical use and practice methods : at first, card dimension, word and character size and specifications were calculated. then, english near reading card, richmond product inc, was considered as a template. context and syntax contribute to reading accuracy and efficacy of the richmond card was considered for designed persian card. near reading acuity of 50 persian native languages, that could read conventional english texts, was compared with three near reading card (two designed persian cards and richmond card). these cards randomly presented to the subjects. visual acuity (va) was randomly measured with and without a cylindrical lens (+2.00 x 90) for all participants. va results and reading time were compared in three cards. results : correlation coefficient of first and second persian reading card were 0.824 and 0.817 (p<0.001) respectively. plus cylindrical lens would change the reading time and va in all reading cards. kappa index of agreement in these three cards was acceptable (61.1%). comparison of persian cards and english card showed high sensitivity (97.5%). specificity for 1.25 mar cut point for these charts was 55.6%. reading time for persian card was less than english card. conclusion : these finding implies that persian near reading card may be used for near reading acuity. it may be very useful for evaluation of visual function of iranian and other persian language persons at near distance.   iranian journal of ophthalmology 201325(3):216-221 © 2013 by the iranian society of ophthalmology