Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the relationship of interocular differences in visual acuity to quality of life as measured on the VFQ-25 in diabetic patients.
Methods :
We report data from 23 diabetic patients (11 female/12 male) identified from 100 persons who participated in a telephone interview to determine aspects of quality of life in the elderly. All participants were recruited from the WVU Eye Institute for the study. Exclusion criterion was failure to pass standard cognitive tests to rule out dementia. Diabetic patients were aged 60 years or more (mean: 67.22 ± 5.23; range 60-77 years). Thirteen of the diabetic patients had proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Five of those had received panretinal photocoagulation as treatment. The study was approved by the WVU Human Subjects Committee, including a HIPAA waiver to access patients' medical records. A chart review determined the monocular visual acuities measured within one month of the telephone interview. Visual acuities were converted to LogMAR values. Using correlation analyses and regression, we determined the visual variables that predicted the scale scores on the NEI-VFQ .
Results :
Visual acuity in the better eye (VAb) averaged 0.22 ± 0.22 LogMAR. Acuity in the worse eye (VAw) averaged 0.73 ± 0.97 LogMAR. Interocular acuity differences (IOD) averaged 0.52 ± 0.87 LogMAR. IOD was not significantly correlated to VAb (r=0.31), but was significantly correlated to VAw (r=0.98). As VAw and/or IOD increased scores on NEI-VFQ scales decreased, yielding statistically significant linear relationships (p < 0.05) on six scales VFQ-Near, VFQ-Distance, VFQ-Social, VFQ-Role, VFQ-Driving, and VFQ-Composite.
Conclusions :
Our data provide additional support for the importance of visual function in determining Quality of Life as measured on the VFQ. In addition to the importance of better eye visual acuity for QOL reported by us and others in elders in general; interocular acuity differences (and/or worse eye acuity) can play a significant role in determining quality of life in elders with diabetes.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.