VISUAL ACUITY ASSESSMENT AND NEED FOR OPTICAL CORRECTION IN ADULTS ATTENDED IN PRIMARY CARE: INTEGRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

The aim of this integrative review was to synthesize the evidence on visual acuity assessment and the need for optical correction in adults attended in primary care. A search was performed in PubMed/MEDLINE, SciELO, LILACS, and the Virtual Health Library, in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, covering 2021 to 2026; selection followed the PRISMA recommendations and resulted in the inclusion of 13 studies. The results indicate that uncorrected refractive error remains the leading cause of distance vision impairment and that uncorrected presbyopia accounts for the largest share of near vision impairment. Visual acuity measurement is a low-cost, highly feasible procedure in primary care, although its accuracy is inferior to that of a complete ophthalmological examination, and direct evidence of benefit from population screening in asymptomatic adults remains insufficient. It is concluded that visual acuity measurement should be guided by symptoms and risk, integrated into resolutive optical correction pathways, and not used in isolation as universal screening.