The prevalence and diagnosis of 'stereoblindness' in adults less than 60 years of age: a best evidence synthesis.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review and best evidence synthesis of observational prevalence data without formal meta-analytic pooling.
PubMed 30776852 · doi:10.1111/opo.12607
What was done
The authors conducted a best-evidence synthesis reviewing how stereopsis (depth perception from binocular disparity) is measured across psychophysical and clinical tests. They evaluated how different diagnostic criteria and testing conditions influence stereoblindness detection and synthesized historical prevalence data in adults younger than 60 years of age across four analytical frameworks.
What was found
All four synthesis approaches yielded an identical estimated stereoblindness prevalence of 7% in adults under 60 years old: the median approach (7%), the unambiguous-stereoblindness-criteria approach (7%), the visual-defect-included approach (7%), and the multiple-criteria approach (7%).
Why it matters
Stereoblindness impairs depth-dependent tasks such as distance estimation, but prior prevalence estimates varied widely due to inconsistent test modalities. Demonstrating that multiple analytical approaches converge on a 7% rate provides a clear baseline prevalence for younger and middle-aged adult populations.
Limits
The abstract does not state the number of studies or total participant sample size included in the synthesis. Results are explicitly restricted to adults younger than 60, excluding older populations where prevalence is likely higher. Diagnostic variability across different stereotests remains a major source of heterogeneity.
Cited by
- supports Approximately 5% of the population is stereoblind.