A full description of a new reading chart in Malay language, the Buari-Chen Malay Reading Chart (BCMRC) is described. Internal and external comparisons of BCMRC are also reported. BCMRC comprised four reading sets with contextual sentence (CS1 and CS2) and random words (RW1 and RW2) designs. A total of 14 prints, ranging from 1.3LogMAR to 0.0LogMAR in 0.1LogMAR steps (equivalent to 8 M to 0.4 M) were printed in high contrast Arial font. CS1, CS2, RW1 and RW2 were presented in random order to the participants for internal comparison. The reading was evaluated aloud with clear pronunciation (errors were recorded). Maximum reading speed (MRS) was reported in words per minute. The external comparison involved two standard English reading charts [MNread acuity chart (MNread) and Bailey-Lovie words reading chart (Bailey-Lovie)]. The internal and external comparisons were analysed using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach’s alpha (α) respectively. Contextual sentence set (ICC=0.82) and random word set (ICC=0.85) exhibited good reliability in our internal comparison. The external comparison showed acceptable reliability for both MNread (α=0.76) and Bailey-Lovie (α=0.80). BCMRC sets with similar features could be used interchangeably to monitor clinical progress in visual rehabilitation. BCMRC was comparable with MNread and Bailey-Lovie reading charts.
Introduction: School vision screening program is a scheduled program under the Ministry of Health, Malaysia for 7, 12 and 15 years-old children in the government schools. The aim of this study was to review the school vision screening program from the perspective of the personnel involved as the screener. Methods: The evaluation of the performance of the screener was based upon the accurate referrals' outcome from the school health database of Betong Division in Sarawak, Malaysia in the year of 2008. Results: The total accuracy of the referrals was 50.7%. Lower accuracy of the referrals was found significantly associated with Grade 1 [χ2 (2.N=304) = 28.810, p