AIM: To investigate the visual fatigue of patients with accommodative asthenopia and the difference in scores before and after treatment by using the asthenopia survey scale(ASS), and to evaluate its reliability, validity and responsiveness in this population.

METHODS: A total of 112 patients with accommodative asthenopia were admitted to the department of ophthalmology, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and recruited online were investigated using the ASS questionnaire, and 48 subjects were randomly selected and retested 1wk later. A variety of reliability, validity and responsiveness indicators were used to evaluate the scale.

RESULTS: The overall Cronbach's α coefficients of the scale entries was 0.91; The split-half reliability coefficients was 0.86; Repeated measurement correlation coefficient of the scale total score was 0.74, there was no significant difference before and after(P>0.05); The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the absolute fit index of the three-factor structural model was χ²/df<2.0, RMSEA=0.08; The correlation coefficients of each dimension's total score and the scale's total score were 0.92, 0.90 and 0.83 respectively; The standard association validity analysis showed statistically significant differences between groups(P<0.01). Response analysis was statistically significant before and after treatment(P<0.01).

CONCLUSION: The ASS has high reliability, validity and responsiveness in the clinical evaluation of accommodative asthenopia, and it's an effective tool for clinical research and screening of asthenopia in this population.