CLINICAL SCIENCE

Utility values and myopia in teenage school students

S-M Saw^1,2, G Gazzard^2,3, K-G Au Eong⁴ and D Koh¹

¹ Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine, National University of Singapore, 16 Medical Drive, Singapore 117597, Republic of Singapore
² Singapore Eye Research Institute, 11 Third Hospital Avenue, Singapore 168751, Republic of Singapore
³ The Institute of Ophthalmology, 11–43 Bath Street, London EC1V 9EL, UK
⁴ The Eye Institute, National Healthcare Group, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, 11 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore 308433

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Seang-Mei Saw, Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine, National University of Singapore, 16 Medical Drive, Singapore 117597, Republic of Singapore;
cofsawsm{at}nus.edu.sg

Aim: To ascertain the utility values of myopic teenage students in Singapore.

Methods: Children (n=699) aged 15–18 years with myopia (spherical equivalent (SE) at least -0.5 dioptres (D)) in two high schools in Singapore were recruited. Information on time trade-off (years of life willing to sacrifice for treatment of myopia) and standard gamble for blindness (risk of blindness from therapy willing to sacrifice for treatment of myopia) utility values, demographic, and socioeconomic status data were obtained.

Results: The time trade-off and standard gamble for blindness utility values were 0.93 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93 to 0.94) and 0.85 (95% CI 0.84 to 0.86), respectively. Children with presenting better eye logMAR visual acuity >0.3 had lower time trade-off utility values (mean 0.92 versus mean 0.94), after adjusting for race and sex. There were dose-response relations between standard gamble for blindness values and total family income, as well as both utility values and educational stream (all p values for trend <0.01), after controlling for the same factors.

Conclusion: The utility values in myopic students were higher for teenagers with better presenting visual acuity, children who wore spectacles or contact lenses, higher total family income, more "academic" schooling stream, and who were non-Muslims.

Keywords: myopia; utility values; quality of life; refractive error; Singapore

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