Effect on falls of providing single lens distance vision glasses to multifocal glasses wearers: VISIBLE randomised controlled trial

I was pleased to see this study, as it needed to be done.
The study's shortcomings, some of which are addressed in the first two
responses to the paper, are somewhat unavoidable.
Taking a random cohort of 80 year old patients, without controlling for
the typical differences in physical condition, mental status, visual
acuity, visual fields, contrast sensitivity, refractive error, and the
strength of the reading add worn, just leaves too many variables. At
least the study brings the issue into the consciousness of clinicians. As
a low vision clinician who is always prescribing stronger reading glasses
for patients, I almost always make these strong glasses as single vision
reading glasses. While I tend to leave non-symptomatic individuals with a
pair of bifocals for general use if they are already well adapted to them,
any history of falls will spur a discussion with the patient about having
a single vision pair (or no correction if their prescription allows) for
outdoor travel.

Competing interests:
None declared