Abstract
Purpose :
To describe self-reported functional limitations in early glaucoma
Methods :
Participants in the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Trial completed the SF-36 annually from 2002, the NEI-VFQ every 2 years from 2001, and a composite survey consisting of Nelson Glaucoma Survey, Owsley Driving Survey and Nelson Glaucoma Survey at close-out. Participants completed Humphrey 30-2 visual fields every 6 months and stereoscopic optic disc photographs every 12 months. Masked graders at the Visual Field Reading Center and Optic Disc Reading Center determined the presence of abnormality/changes. Reproducible abnormalities/changes were reviewed by a masked Endpoint Committee along with medical and ocular history to determine if the abnormality/change could be attributable to POAG. In 13 years of follow-up, 279 participants (pts.) developed POAG in one or both eyes according to this strict case definition of POAG, thus the onset time of POAG is well documented. We compare self-reported functional limitations in participants who developed POAG in one or both eyes to concurrent controls who did not develop POAG at their last OHTS visit.
Scale scores on the SF-36 and NEI-VFQ were classified as below vs. at/above the normative age-decade median to capture the construct of “worse” than age-specific function, i.e., “functional limitation”. We report the percent of pts. whose scores meet this definition of “functional limitation” to harmonize terminology between the SF-36, NEI-VFQ and Nelson Glaucoma Scale.
Results :
Mean duration of POAG at study close-out was 4.8 years and mean deviation in the better eye of participants who developed POAG was 1.22+3.0 SD dB.
Conclusions :
There was a trend towards greater self-reported functional limitations among participants who developed POAG compared to concurrent controls despite the fact that most of the participants who developed POAG, diagnosed by visual fields and/or by optic disc photography, would be classified as very “early” loss in the better eye. The OHTS 20-year Follow-up Study will provide additional data on the prevalence and rate of functional loss.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.