Abstract
Purpose: :
To explore the associations of strabismus and amblyopia with health-related quality of life in preschool children.
Methods: :
The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), a measure of general health-related quality of life was administered to the parents of a population-based sample of children aged 25 to 72 months in the Multi-ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study. Children with strabismus and amblyopia were identified following a comprehensive eye examination. The PedsQL consists of 4 function sub-scales (physical, emotional, social, and school) and 3 summary scores (physical, psychosocial, and total). Its associations with strabismus and amblyopia were evaluated in children >=25 months and >= 30 months (youngest age to perform optotype VA testing), respectively. Univariate and multivariate linear models were used for the analyses.
Results: :
Of the 4463 children who were eligible for the strabismus-related analyses, 124 were diagnosed with strabismus. There were statistically significant differences in all 3 summary PedsQL scores between children with and without strabismus (p<0.05). After adjusting for gender, age, race, family income, other systemic health conditions, and prior parental knowledge of strabismus diagnosis, significant differences remained for all 3 summary scores (p<0.05). Of the 3529 examined children who were eligible for the amblyopia-related analyses, 74 had amblyopia. There were no significant differences in any of the PedsQL scores between the children with and without amblyopia, even after adjusting for age, gender, race, and family income (p>0.05).
Conclusions: :
Strabismus was associated with worse general pediatric quality of life and its early detection and treatment may be beneficial. On the other hand, amblyopia was not associated with worse general pediatric quality of life. Given that treatment of amblyopia is important for improving visual acuity in children, its association with targeted vision-related tasks should be further explored.
Keywords: quality of life • strabismus • amblyopia