Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the relationship between the severity of visual field defects and the awareness of driving difficulty among primary-open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients.
Methods :
We recruited individuals who were aged between 40–85 years old and regularly drove over 1 km per week from three institutions in Japan between May 2011 and November 2011. We included those with best corrected decimal visual acuity of 0.7 or above bilaterally. Each patient was asked if he or she had perceived difficulty in driving. All patients underwent static perimetry and the severity of visual field loss was graded as mild, moderate, or severe according to the Hodapp-Parrish-Anderson scale. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between severity of visual filed defects and the awareness of driving difficulty.
Results :
We documented 256 (79 [30.9%] women) POAG patients with mean age of 63.8. In total, 15.2% (39/256) reported driving difficulty. There was a positive relation between self-reported driving difficulty and severity of visual field defects in both worse and better eyes (Ptrend=0.003 in both worse and better eyes). The multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of having driving difficulty comparing those with severe vs. mild visual field defects were 3.37 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.47-7.74) in better eye and 3.42 (95% CI: 1.29-9.05) in worse eye, respectively. These trends were generally similar when stratified by age and sex.
Conclusions :
The severity of visual field defects in either better or worse eyes was positively related with self-reported driving difficulty among POAG patients. This study advocates the necessity of assessing driving ability in advanced glaucoma patients.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.