Self-reported data are used widely in national surveillance surveys, clinical and population based studies, and routine clinical assessments to assess vision status, eye disease, and visual function.
1 A number of surveys ask participants to rate the global quality of their vision on a scale from poor to good (self-rated vision status). In routine clinic assessments, patients also are often asked how they would rate their vision. This measure usually is taken as a surrogate for a patient's overall satisfaction with their vision. Understanding which variables are most important to individuals as they rate their vision status is important not only in further understanding the determinants of this measure, but also in ultimately improving an individual's self-rated vision status and their overall satisfaction with their vision.
Previous studies have examined the association between self-rated vision status and vision tests (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and visual fields), although some of the results have been inconsistent. The 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) asks participants their self-rated vision status in the general vision subscale.
2 This subscale has been associated significantly with visual acuity in multiple populations.
2 –8 Other vision tests, such as contrast sensitivity, stereoacuity, and visual fields, also may be important determinants in self-rated vision status.
9 –13 However, the association among these measures and self-rated vision status has not been well studied. In the populations in which it has been examined the results have been inconsistent. For example, Revicki et al.
7 found that the correlation between the general vision subscale of the NEI VFQ-25 and contrast sensitivity was not significant in a population of age-related macular degeneration patients. Noble et al.
14 found a similar result in a population of multiple sclerosis patients. In contrast with these findings, other studies have described a significant correlation between self-rated vision status and contrast sensitivity in a population of glaucoma and optic neuritis patients.
4,5 Similarly, other reports have been inconsistent regarding the association between self-rated vision status and visual fields.
2,4,10,14 Few studies have examined the association between self-rated vision status and stereoacuity. Therefore, it is clear that further study is needed to elucidate more firmly the relationship between self-rated vision status and vision tests.
Vision tests alone do not entirely reflect the degree of visual impairment experienced by an individual.
15,16 Measures that evaluate visual function provide additional information about the impact of visual impairment on everyday life, and thus, visual function also may be an important determinant of self-rated vision status. Few studies have examined the association between self-rated vision status and visual function.
The aim of our study is to evaluate the association between self-rated vision status, and tests of visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, stereoacuity, bilateral visual field, as well as self-reported visual function in specific domains of near and far vision. The goal is to understand better which variables are most important when participants rate the quality of their vision.