Abstract
Purpose :
To determine if the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ) composite and subscale scores are associated with psychophysical tests in early and intermediate dry age-related macular degeneration (eAMD and iAMD).
Methods :
As part of the single-center, prospective, longitudinal, observational Duke FEATURE study (Duke study of Functional Endpoints for Age-related Macular Degeneration), 101 subjects (33 eAMD, 47 iAMD and 21 controls) were administered the NEI-VFQ39 at baseline. 70 (22 eAMD, 31 iAMD, and 17 controls) completed the longitudinal study and received the instrument at 24 months, along with best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), low luminance (LLVA), cone contrast test (CCT, Innova Systems), microperimetry (MP) with eye tracking (MAIA, iCare), and dark adaptation (DA) (AdaptDx) testing.
Results :
At baseline, iAMD patients had significantly lower composite NEI-VFQ39 scores (88.81±7.65) than eAMD participants (90.95±9.44) and controls (94.89±4.22; p<0.05). In a cross-sectional analysis at 24 months, this relationship remained significant (88.14±6.53, 93.01±5.37, and 94.26±3.29, respectively, p<0.05). No significant change in NEI-VFQ scores over 24 months was detected. At baseline, NEI-VFQ39 composite score was significantly associated with LLVA (Spearman r = 0.32933, p = 0.0008), percent-reduced threshold (PRT) (r = -0.33067, p = 0.0014), and absolute threshold (AT) (r = 0.30843, p = 0.0029) on MP. Other mild to moderate correlations between NEI-VFQ39 subscale scores and visual function tests were identified: general vision subscale with BCVA (r = 0.34240, p = 0.0005), LLVA (r = 0.43578, p < 0.0001), and CCT (r = 0.3117, p = 0.0016) as well as near activities subscale with MP metrics PRT (r = -0.35567, p = 0.0005) and AT (r = 0.36265, p = 0.0004). No significant associations were identified between NEI-VFQ39 scores and DA.
Conclusions :
NEI-VFQ39 composite and subscale scores were moderately associated with BCVA, LLVA, CCT, and MP, but not with DA in eAMD and iAMD patients at baseline and 24 months. However, NEI-VFQ39 did not detect changes in patient-reported functional impairment within the timeframe studied, suggesting lower sensitivity than DA, MP and CCT in this study.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.