Quality of life in intermittent exotropia for Korean children and their patrents

Abstract

Background Patients with strabismus are more likely to have mental health problems, including high rates of depressive symptoms and social phobia. Intermittent exotropia (IXT) typically occurs in early childhood and is more common in Asian populations. We aim to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) concerns in children with intermittent exotropia (IXT) using the Intermittent Exotropia Questionaire (IXTQ), and their associations with the clinical severity of IXT and the parents’ HRQOL concerns. Methods One hundred twenty-two children with IXT (aged 5–17 years) and one parent for each child completed the child and parent IXTQ, respectively. The final IXTQ score is calculated using the mean score for all items, and ranges from 0 (worst HRQOL) to 100 (best HRQOL). The correlations of child IXTQ scores with their deviation angle and stereoacuity were measured, as were those with their parent’s IXTQ scores. Results The greatest HRQOL concern for each child with IXT and their parent was “Worry about eyes.” Lower child IXTQ scores were associated with a larger deviation angle. “Shutting one eye when it is sunny” and “Waiting for their eyes to clear up” were more common in children with a larger deviation angle. The parent IXTQ scores were lower than the child ones and showed a positive correlation with child IXTQ scores. Lower parent IXTQ scores were associated with poor distance stereoacuity. Conclusion The HRQOL of IXT children was closely related to that of their parents. A larger deviation angle and worse distance stereoacuity function may predict more-negative impacts on children and their parents, respectively.