Included studies characteristics.

BackgroundConsideration for patients with visual impairment, from low vision to blindness, is an important part of building a barrier-free society. Some authors have elaborated that visual impairment can indeed lead to delayed development in theory of mind, thereby causing pragmatic knowledge deficiency. Verifying whether those with eye conditions have pragmatic impairment is an essential way for their clinical evaluation, intervention and rehabilitation.ObjectiveWe primarily carry out a meta-analysis of visual impairment from low vision to blindness and pragmatic impairment in people with low vision or blindness to verify visual impairment may cause pragmatic impairment.Data sourcesElectronic databases Pubmed, Medline, MesH, Psychinfo, Ovid, EBSCO and CNKI and the reference sections of previous reviews.Study eligibility criteriaStudies were included when they built on primary data from clinical questionnaire surveys or field trials anywhere in the world, and when they reported impacts of visual impairment on social cognition, communication, skills, behavior and intelligence. In total, 25 original studies were included, in which 25735 people were evaluated.ResultsStatistically, visual impairments and pragmatic impairment exist correlation due to the significant p value(p = 0.0005 p p = 0.003 ConclusionThe meta-analysis reveals robust evidence on the relationship of vision impairment and pragmatic impairment in children or adults. Such evidence may help to gradually improve the clinical evaluation, intervention and rehabilitation of these people.