Vision-related quality of life in the population-based Gutenberg Health Study (GHS)

Abstract

Purpose : To estimate the burden of certain diseases, it is important to ascertain patient reported outcomes including Quality of Life (QoL) and to compare it with the general population. The aim of this study was to provide population-based reference data for vision-related QoL, stratified by sex and age.

Methods : The Gutenberg Health Study (GHS) is a population-based, prospective, observational cohort study in Germany, including 15,010 participants aged between 35 and 74 at recruitment. The sample was randomly drawn and equally stratified by sex and residence (urban/rural) for each decade of age. The baseline examination was conducted between 2007 and 2012 and comprised an ophthalmic examination, several general and cardiovascular examinations, as well as interviews and questionnaires. Vision-related QoL was assessed using the German version of the “National Eye Institute 25-Item Visual Function Questionnaire” (VFQ-25). The VFQ-25 is comprised of 25 items, summarized in twelve sub-scores and one global vision-related QoL score, ranging from 0=worst to 100=best. We used a linear regression model to assess the influence of age, sex, socio-economic status, education, place of residency, and visual acuity (worse eye and better eye) on vision-related QoL.

Results : VFQ-25 data is available from 13,217 participants (88%), the global vision-related QoL score from 9,995 participants. The mean global score was 91.2 (standard deviation 7.4) among all participants, and similar in men and women. In the age decade 35-44 years, vision-related QoL was 94.0 (SD 5.1), and was lower (89.4 – 90.8) in the older decades. In the multivariate regression model, visual acuity of the worse (beta: 6.1, 95% confidence interval [5.4 – 6.8]) and of the better eye (4.7, [3.7 – 5.8]) are strongly associated with a better vision-related QoL. Female sex (-1.33, [-1.60 – -1.06]), higher age (per 10 years: -0.7, [-0.9 – -0.6]) and years of education (-0.2, [-0.3 – -0.1]) are associated with a lower vision-related QoL.

Conclusions : We report age- and sex-specific reference data from a large population-based study of mainly Caucasian ethnicity. These can now be used to compare QoL outcomes of clinical trials with population norms. Contrary to previous studies, our results highlight the association of vision-related QoL not only with the best-corrected visual acuity of the better but also of the worse eye.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.