Abstract
Purpose :
Evaluate the quality of life in patients with uveitis related to toxoplasmosis and its correlation with demographic, ocular involvement and psychosocial aspects. This was a cross-sectional observational study.
Methods :
81 subjects were recruited with a mean age of 41,5 ± 14.5 years old, most were female (n=41; 50,6%).
Inclusion criteria were patients 18 yo and older, with clinical diagnosis of ocular toxoplasmosis and ability to respond to the study interview and provide informed consent. A comprehensive ophthalmic exam was performed with measurement of best-corrected visual acuity.
Three validated and standardized questionnaires Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); Short – Form Health Survey (SF-12); National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI - VFQ-25); and a questionnaire structured by the researchers, to collect demographic and ocular involvement data were used. Statistical analysis used were Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney test. Data were entered and stored in the spreadsheet Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and were statistically analyzed using Statistica software version 5.1/97 for Mann–Whitney, Kruskal–Wallis and Spearman’ s correlation test.
Results :
HADS scale showed a mean score of 5.9 ± 4.1 for anxiety and 38% of subjects had symptoms of anxiety ranked from mild to severe. Symptoms of anxiety were significantly associated with visual status category (p = 0.037). The mean of SF-12 physical and mental components scores were 48.5 ± 7.4 and 52.4 ± 10.6 and the mean of VFQ-25 score was 75.3 ± 19.5.
Through univariate analyses, on SF-12, comparing demographic and ocular features, associations were found with statistical significance in domains such as role physical (p=0,017), role emotional (p=0,016) and mental component summary (p=0,019) for visual acuity category.
On VFQ-25 associations were found with statistical significance in all domains for exception general health, general vision and color vision for visual acuity category. Significance were found for female gender in General health (p= 0,011); bilateral involvement for near activities (p= 0,016), distance activities (p= 0,017) and global component score (p= 0,049).
Conclusions :
Visual impairment secondary to ocular toxoplasmosis has impact on several scales of health related quality of life. Also affects psychological aspects beeing anxiety symptoms more common.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.