Abstract
Purpose::
Recent interest in refractive surgery has let to the development of refractive error-specific quality of life surveys among which, National Eye Institute Refractive Error Quality of Life Instrument (NEI-RQL-42) is a survey consisting of 42 items and 13 subscales. The original version is validated though a validated version in Turkish is not available yet.
Methods::
Twenty-five participants with a good visual acuity (better than 0.6 best corrected visual acuity on each eye) on a Snellen scale completed the NEI-RQL-42 and VFQ-25 on two occasions to date.
Results::
The internal consistency of the overall NEI-RQL-42 was excellent (Cronbach α= 0.89). Three of the subscales had internal consistencies of less than 0.70 including glare, suboptimal correction, and appearance. Two subscales had very high reliability (expectations and near vision). The internal consistency of the previously validated Turkish version of VFQ-25 was good (Cronbach α=0.83).
Conclusions::
Preliminary results suggest a good reliability of the NEI-RQL-42 in this sample population. The NEI-RQL-42 seems to be successfully translated and culturally adopted from the English original.
Keywords: quality of life • refraction