Introduction/purpose: Convergence insufficiency (CI) is a binocular vision disorder characterised by difficulty maintaining convergence and fixation at near. Depending on the severity of the CI, patients can present with a variety of symptoms during near vision tasks. Some studies indicate an increased incidence of CI in children with reading difficulties. Although a lot of research has been done on the effects of CI-treatments on eye-related symptoms, not much is known about its effect on performance related symptoms such as reading difficulties. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to determine if CI-treatments have a positive effect on reading performance. Methods: A search string was created to gather all relevant clinical trials on the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and Cochrane libraries. Only clinical trials were included that provided pre- and post treatment data on the effect of CI-treatment on reading performance in school aged children (5-18y). A total of three relevant clinical trials were found that provided pre-and post-treatment data. Results: A total of 352 subjects in CI-treatment groups across three clinical trials and 104 subjects in a placebo group provided pre-and post CI-treatment data on the improvements of reading performance in school aged children. The cumulative within-group treatment effect size (0.21(SD 0.03) [95%CI: 0.15, 0.27]) and the cumulative within-group placebo effect size (0.22(SD 0.05) [95%CI: 0.13, 0.32]) for the improvement of reading performance after CI-treatment in school aged children with CI was calculated. Conclusion: CI-treatment has little to no true effect size on reading performance. Though CI-treatments will cause an increase in reading performance, this is likely caused by improvements in attention, motivation, or other psychological factors (placebo effect).

convergence insufficiency

Reading and Writing Skills

visual therapy

binocular vision disorder

CI-treatment