Elsevier

Ophthalmology

Volume 105, Issue 3, 1 March 1998, Pages 561-566
Ophthalmology

Glaucoma’s impact on quality of life and its relation to clinical indicators: A pilot study1☆,

Presented in part at the Annual Meetings of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, May 1995 and April 1996.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0161-6420(98)93043-3Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to compare the quality of life (Q of L) of patients with glaucoma and control subjects and to determine the relationships between Q of L and demographic and clinical variables in patients with glaucoma.

Design

The study design was a stratified cross-sectional study.

Participants

A gender-, race-, and age-stratified cross-sectional sample of patients with glaucoma (n = 56) and control subjects (n = 54) was obtained. Additional patients (n = 12) were included to examine the relationships between glaucoma, its therapy, and Q of L.

Intervention

The Medical Outcomes Study short form (MOS-20), the Activities of Daily Vision Scale (ADVS), and questions related to glaucoma and side effects of treatment were administered. Descriptive statistics characterized demographic variables and MOS and ADVS scales. Group differences were evaluated using chi-square, Fisher’s and Ordinal Exact, Wilcoxon rank-sum, and two-sample t tests. Spearman rank correlations were obtained between MOS-ADVS scores and clinical and demographic variables. Regression was used for multivariate analysis.

Main outcome measures

The MOS scores, ADVS scores, visual acuity, visual fields, and demographic variables were measured.

Results

Patients scored significantly lower than did the control subjects in all MOS-20 categories except pain. Differences were physical (−20%), role (−43%), mental health (−10%), general health (−22%), and social (−9%). The only category that was not statistically significant was that of pain (P = 0.075). In the glaucoma subgroup, there were differences between whites and nonwhites in MOS subscales physical, role, social, pain, and health, and ADVS near vision. In patients, current medications and previous surgeries correlated with ADVS subscales night vision, near vision, and glare; visual acuity and fields correlated with MOS subscales physical, role and health, and all ADVS subscales. A multiple regression model including visual acuity and fields, urban residence, and female gender explained 61% of the variability in ADVS overall score.

Conclusions

The Q-of-L perception differed between patients with glaucoma and control subjects. Increasing field loss, decreased visual acuity, and complexity of therapy correlated with patients’ reduction in activities of daily vision.

Section snippets

Patients and methods

A stratified cross-sectional study design was used to compare Q of L between patients with glaucoma and control subjects. Patients with glaucoma (n = 56) attending one specialist’s clinic at a tertiary care academic facility were compared with nonglaucomatous control subjects chosen from the community (n = 54). The stratified design was used to achieve balance between patients and control subjects with respect to race, gender, and age (40–65, >65). Control subjects were required to have no

Results

Patients with glaucoma (n = 56) and control subjects (n = 54) were compared with respect to age, gender, race, residence, employment, education, and income. No significant differences were found for any of these variables (Table 1).

When comparing the MOS-20 scores for patients and control subjects, we found statistically significant differences in the subscales for physical functioning, role functioning, social functioning, mental health, and health perceptions. There were no statistically

Discussion

Significant differences in Q-of-L perception were found between a sample of patients with glaucoma attending a tertiary care academic facility and control subjects. Visual loss in patients with glaucoma leads to a deterioration in the patient’s quality of daily living. This has been described previously for patients with cataracts and other visual pathology.13, 17, 18, 19 In this study, patients with glaucoma reported significantly more symptomatology, which may be attributed to glaucoma and

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    ☆

    Supported in part by an unrestricted departmental grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc.

    1

    The authors have no proprietary interest in the development or marketing of this or a competing instrument.

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