Purpose
Keratoconus (KC) is a corneal disease associated with a cone-shaped protrusion and progressive corneal thinning. Correct the optical error induced by an irregular corneal surface is of paramount importance with respect to quality of life and ability to work. Our purpose was to determine if the Impact of SF36-Item Health Survey is a valid questionnaire to measure the vision-related quality of life in bilateral keratoconus patients and to relate it to the severity of the disease.
Methods
115 keratoconus patients and 32 healthy subjects (control group) were included in the study. The stage of keratoconus was graded as mild when the steepest keratometric reading (K2) was < 45 diopters (D), moderate if K2 was between 45 and 52 D and severe with K2 >52 D. We considered K2 as the quantitative clinical variable to assess the severity of keratoconus. The parameters studied included patients demographics, clinical features, topography and visual acuity and SF-36 questionnaire.
Results
Both groups were demographically similar and comparable. Mean age was 33.14 ± 7.54 years (40% women and 60 % men) in KC group and 34.19 ± 7.98 years (42% women and 58% men) in control group. The general health status of patients with keratoconus was good (76.71 ± 5.13). However, SF-36 scores showed that patients with severe degree of keratoconus had lowest scores regarding the social and emotional status component (83.66 ± 6.80) as well as the job component (80.04 ± 9.5) (p=0.002).
Conclusions
The SF-36 questionnaire seems to be a useful tool for measuring health-related quality of life in KC patients given its ability to measure health in physical, psychological and social health scales.
Keywords: 574 keratoconus •
669 quality of life