TITLE:
Vision-Related Quality of Life in Ocular Hypertension Patients: Effects of Treatment
AUTHORS:
Maria Kazaki, Ilias Georgalas, Alexandros Damanakis, Georgios Labiris, Sergios Taliantzis, Chryssanthi Koutsandrea, Dimitris Papaconstantinou
KEYWORDS:
Intraocular Pressure, Ocular Hypertension, Quality of Life, VFQ-25
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Ophthalmology,
Vol.5 No.1,
February
15,
2015
ABSTRACT: Purpose: To evaluate the quality of life related to vision (QoL) in patients with ocular hypertension under treatment. Methods: The study included two groups. The first one consisted of 60 ocular hypertension patients under topical hypotensive medications and the second one of 60 healthy persons. The Greek language version of the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire 25 (NEI VFQ-25) was completed by all patients. Results: The median scores of the total score and also for almost all the NEI VFQ-25 subscales were significantly decreased for the first group of ocular hypertension patients (OHT) under topical therapy. Females presented higher QoL than that of males. The patients who used one medication presented higher QoL than that of the patients who used more than one. The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and the intraocular pressure (IOP) were significantly correlated with QoL. The index of the visual fields, pattern standard deviation (PSD), was significantly related to the quality of life of OHT. The age, the cup to disk ratio and the central corneal thickness had also significant correlations with subscales of the QoL. Conclusions: The quality of life OHT patients under topical treatment is significantly decreased than healthy persons. Male sex and the number of medications affect QoL more. BCVA and IOP represent the clinical findings that best correlate with several subscales of QoL. PSD is a significant index that correlates well with the quality of life of OHT patients.