Performance of a new device for the clinical determination of light discomfort

Purpose To assess the performance of a new device for the clinical determination of light discomfort on a large sample of healthy human subjects. Methods A total of 489 subjects ranging from 20 to 70 years old (241 men, 248 women) were evaluated with the LUMIZ (TM) 100 to determine light discomfort. Repeatability was assessed by means of within-subject standard deviation, coefficient of variation (CoV), and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Repeated measures ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, and correlation analysis were applied to test for differences between repeated measures, and effect of age on reliability. Results Discomfort thresholds obtained are well distributed across the light intensity range available (25 to 10211 lux). Intrasession ICCs are higher than 0.849 for all thresholds, and 85% of CoV are below 10%. Thresholds obtained in the first set of measurements are highly correlated with the median of three sets (r2 > 0.8). Intersession, 64% of CoV are below 10%. Age does not affect discomfort thresholds (p = 0.30), nor affect reliability (variance on CoV, p = 0.368) Conclusions The new device provides good intrasession repeatability for the clinical determination of light discomfort thresholds, although variance is slightly greater between sessions. The system is useful for the clinical determination of light discomfort.