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We assessed the ocular status and visual adaptation among children studying at a school for visually disabled children in Muscat, Oman. This descriptive study was conducted in 2009-2010. We assessed the visual and ocular status of the participants. They were interviewed to elicit the past history of eye problems and management. They also expressed their visual adaptation in their 'day-to-day' life, and their ambitions. We examined and interviewed 47 participants (29 male and 18 female). The mean age of the participants was 19.7 years (Standard deviation 5.9 years). Twenty-six of them were blind since birth. Phthisical eyes, disfigured eyes and anophthalmic sockets were noted in 19, 58, and six eyes of participants. Twenty-six (55.5%) participants had visual disabilities due to genetic causes, since birth. In 13 participants, further investigations were needed to confirm diagnosis and determine further management After low vision training, 13 participants with residual vision could be integrated in the school with normal children. One participant was recommended stem cell treatment for visual restoration. Five children were advised reconstructive orbital surgery. The participants were not keen to use a white cane for mobility. Some participants, 16 / 28 (57%), with absolute blindness, were not able to read the Braille language. Singing and playing music were not very well-accepted hobbies among the participants. Nineteen participants were keen to become teachers. Children with visual disabilities need to be periodically assessed. The underlying causes of visual disabilities should be further explored to facilitate prevention and genetic counseling. Participants had visual adaptation for daily living and had ambitions for the future.

To determine the sensitivity and specificity of a new Eye Check Chart (ECC) for screening neuro-ophthalmological patients with lesions in the visual pathways. The Humphrey perimeter (HP) with the 30-2 SITA Fast program was used to confirm the visual field defects found in 65 eyes of 35 neuro-ophthalmological patients. Forty eyes had pregeniculate lesions, and 25 eyes had postgeniculate lesions. As controls, 22 eyes of 12 patients without visual field defects were also examined. All subjects were then examined using the eye check chart (ECC) to determine whether comparable visual field defects were detected. The eyes were separated into those in which the ECC findings agreed with the HP findings, and those in which they did not agree. Based on HP results, the sensitivity and specificity of the ECC results were calculated. The sensitivity of ECC was 87% in patients with pregeniculate lesions and 80% in patients with postgeniculate lesions. The overall specificity of ECC was 91%. This high sensitivity and specificity indicate that ECC can give reliable results in screening neuro-ophthalmological patients for lesions in the visual pathways.

There is conflicting evidence for the association between smoking and dry eye disease (DED). We conducted a meta-analysis to determine the true relationship between smoking and DED. A systematic literature search was performed using electronic databases, including PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library, till August 2021 to identify observational studies with data on smoking as risk factor of DED. Quality assessment of the included studies was conducted using Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal checklists. The random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled odds ratio (OR). Heterogeneity was evaluated by Cochrane Q and I2 index; in addition, subgroup, sensitivity, and meta-regression analyses were performed. Publication bias was assessed using funnel plot and Egger's regression test. A total of 22 studies (4 cohort and 18 cross-sectional studies) with 160,217 subjects met the inclusion criteria and were included in this meta-analysis. There is no statistically significant relationship between current smokers (ORadjusted = 1.14; 95% CI: 0.95-1.36; P = 0.15; I2 = 84%) and former smokers (ORadjusted = 1.06; 95% CI: 0.93-1.20; P = 0.38; I2 = 26.7%) for the risk of DED. The results remained consistent across various subgroups. No risk of publication bias was detected by funnel plot and Eggers's test (P > 0.05). No source of heterogeneity was observed in the meta-regression analysis. Our meta-analysis suggest current or former smoking may not be involved in the risk of dry eye disease. Further studies to understand the mechanism of interaction between current smokers and formers smokers with DED are recommended.

Most children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in resource-limited settings (RLS), are diagnosed after the age of four. Our work confirmed and extended results of Pierce that eye tracking could discriminate between typically developing (TD) children and those with ASD. We demonstrated the initial 15 s was at least as discriminating as the entire video. We evaluated the GP-MCHAT-R, which combines the first 15 s of manually-coded gaze preference (GP) video with M-CHAT-R results on 73 TD children and 28 children with ASD, 36–99 months of age. The GP-MCHAT-R (AUC = 0.89 (95%CI: 0.82–0.95)), performed significantly better than the MCHAT-R (AUC = 0.78 (95%CI: 0.71–0.85)) and gaze preference (AUC = 0.76 (95%CI: 0.64–0.88)) alone. This tool may enable early screening for ASD in RLS.

Background Eye cancer is a serious eye disease that threatens patients’ lives. In the past decade, there have been more and more studies on eye cancer. From the recently published eye cancer literature review, it can be seen that the two most popular research hotspots are retinoblastoma (RB) and uveal melanoma (UM) [1, 2]. Although several studies have assessed QOL in different types of eye cancer patients, a study that synthesizes the factors influencing QOL in eye cancer patients is yet to be undertaken. This study aimed to review and evaluate the literature related to the QOL of RB and UM survivors, and provide a synthesis of the current evidence on the impact of the two types of eye cancer on the overall QOL of patients. Methods Eight databases (APA Psych Articles, CINAHL Complete, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, MEDLINE Complete, Scopus, Cochrane Library, PubMed, and Registers (Clinicaltrials.gov.)) were searched between January 2012 and December 2022 for English, peer-reviewed quantitative original studies within this review. All publications were screened using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses reporting guidelines. The methodological quality of the reviews was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklists. The findings were summarised and tabulated accordingly. Results Seventeen articles were analysed. Among them, 14 articles on patients with UM, and three articles on patients with RB using 18 different types of measurement tools were included. Eight researchers claimed that the overall QOL of patients with eye cancer was better than or similar to that of the general healthy population. However, nine studies indicated that these patients had poorer QOL than others. Many factors affect QOL, including treatment, sex, and age. Conclusion This systematic review identified the QOL levels and several factors that influence the QOL of ocular cancer patients worldwide, due to the variability in quality of the studies, it also showed the need for further research to assess factors affecting long-term QOL outcomes in RB and UM survivors. Simultaneously, it clarified the necessity and importance of developing standardized and complete assessment tools to compare QOL in different countries. Early interventions can be developed to improve the survivors’ QOL by identifying potential deficits in specific areas.

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is a chronic infectious neglected tropical disease. Leprosy can cause extensive immune mediated nerve damage which can persist post cure of infection with multidrug therapy, leaving a significant burden of physical disability among those affected by leprosy. Leprosy can also cause irreversible damage to the eyes and eventual blindness or visual disability. One means of preventing, monitoring and managing the disability as a result of leprosy is through self-care. Self-care is the practice of patients undertaking activities to improve or maintain their own health with or without the support of a healthcare professional, and has been a part of World Health Organization Zero leprosy strategies for many years. This review will seek to identify what self-care interventions exist for leprosy affected people and will map these interventions to the transtheoretical model of behaviour change to identify which level of the model current interventions target. Sub questions will explore what information is provided regarding the cost of the interventions and additionally explore what eye, feet and hand specific self-care advice is given by interventions. We will search for literature in PubMed, Medline ALL, Web of science Core Collection, Embase, LILACS and SciELO. Studies that encompass a self-care intervention under the definition provided by the World Health Organization targeting those affected by leprosy will be eligible for inclusion. No language restriction will be applied. Data will first be deduplicated using endnote before the final deduplicated search results are uploaded to Rayyan for screening by the research team. We will apply a blinded screening whereby if at least one screener identifies a paper as potentially relevant it will proceed to full text screening, this will be carried out independently by at least two of the authors, in this case of disagreement a final decision will be made by the senior author. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed method studies will be eligible for inclusion. Studies will be assessed for bias using CASP checklists. Findings will be reported in narrative synthesis and as a visual representation of levels of the transtheoretical model addressed in interventions. Start date: 11 August 2025. End date: 30 November 2025. The findings from this review will document existing self-care interventions for those affected by leprosy, mapping the individual interventions to the stage of the transtheoretical model of behaviour change that they address. Information will also be presented regarding implementation costs of the interventions and what specific advice for hands, feet and eyes is given. Highlighting promising interventions can support clinicians in low-resource settings in advising their patients on what to prioritize in their self-care. CRD42025649623.

We investigated longitudinal relations among gaze following and face scanning in infancy and later language development. At 12 months, infants watched videos of a woman describing an object while their passive viewing was measured with an eye-tracker. We examined the relation between infants' face scanning behavior and their tendency to follow the speaker's attentional shift to the object she was describing. We also collected language outcome measures on the same infants at 18 and 24 months. Attention to the mouth and gaze following at 12 months both predicted later productive vocabulary. The results are discussed in terms of social engagement, which may account for both attentional distribution and language onset. We argue that an infant's inherent interest in engaging with others (in addition to creating more opportunities for communication) leads infants to attend to the most relevant information in a social scene and that this information facilitates language learning.

Reflection is an ambiguous and profoundly complex human activity. We celebrate the developments in teaching and researching reflection in education, yet have identified flaws in the way reflection has been operationalized: medical education has translated the age-old concept into a teachable and measureable construct. We fear that in this process of operationalization, the philosophical underpinnings of reflection have been discarded. We illustrate this with a thought experiment about a ‘reflective zombie’: students who have been conditioned to follow prescribed thought steps rather than engaging in truly reflective behaviour. In research and assessment of reflection, measuring tools might be unable to distinguish reflective zombies from students who authentically reflect. We argue that the instrumental approach lies at the root of this problem as it limits the rich concept of reflection and illustrate our point by describing problems related to paradigm (we are looking at reflection in the wrong way), methods (we are using the wrong tools), and epistemics (can we even know what we want to know?). We offer three suggestions for implementing reflection into the curriculum and for research into reflection. First, acknowledge the diversity of reflection and let go of the ‘checklist approach’. Second, embrace the personal nature of reflection by stimulating awareness of one’s personal reflection styles as part of the reflective process. Third, shift the focus of research to the practice of reflection. We believe that a strong vision on reflection can lead to a balanced curriculum, setting students up for a lifelong learning as a reflective practitioner.

Background Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often struggle with eye contact during social interactions, a key aspect of effective communication. In recent years, various artificial intelligence (AI)-based interventions have been developed to support children with ASD. This study aims to systematically review the published literature on the AI-based interventions for improving eye contact. Methods The review adhered to the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Two researchers searched six databases: Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, APA PsycInfo, Education Source, and IEEE Xplore, which initially yielded 1663 records. After screening and eligibility assessment, 16 studies met all inclusion criteria. Data were extracted through a narrative synthesis focusing on key variables, including study characteristics (author, year, region, sample, design, setting, and duration), definitions and measurements of eye contact, AI tool, and technological modalities, findings including reported effectiveness, generalization and maintenance outcomes, as well as whether social validity was assessed in each study. Two researchers independently conducted data extraction, quality assessment, and risk-of-bias evaluation using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklists and the Single-Case Experimental Design (SCED) scale. Results Included studies used a variety of AI-based tools. The most frequently used intervention modality was robotic systems, which were used in 12 studies, followed by wearable technologies (two studies), virtual reality (one), and game-based software (one). Preliminary findings suggest that AI technologies are often associated with increases in the frequency and duration of eye contact. Six studies (38%) assessed generalization of treatment effects, generally reporting positive outcomes, while seven studies (44%) assessed social validity. The research mostly utilized quantitative designs, including randomized controlled trials, repeated measure designs, single-subject research designs, and quasi-experimental designs. One qualitative case study and one case report were also identified. Methodological quality ratings ranged from moderate to high across study designs. Conclusion This systematic review revealed that AI-based interventions are developing technology for improving eye contact behavior in children with ASD. Particularly, robotic systems provide promising evidence for improving eye-contact behaviors in children with ASD. However, the current evidence base remains limited due to small sample sizes and variations in the operational definitions of eye contact, measurement methods, and levels of AI sophistication. Data on generalization and social validity were also limited, highlighting the need for larger, methodologically rigorous studies to confirm these findings and assess their broader applicability. Clinical trial number This study did not involve clinical trials, and as such, there is no clinical trial number to report.