The association between clinical parameters and glaucoma-specific quality of life in Chinese primary open-angle glaucoma patients

Abstract

OBJECTIVE. To investigate the association between clinical measurements and glaucoma-specific quality of life in Chinese glaucoma patients. DESIGN. Cross-sectional study. SETTING. An academic hospital in Hong Kong. PATIENTS. A Chinese translation of the Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 questionnaire was completed by 51 consecutive patients with bilateral primary open-angle glaucoma. The binocular means of several clinical measurements were correlated with Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 findings using Pearson's correlation coefficient and linear regression. The measurements were the visual field index and pattern standard deviation from the Humphrey Field Analyzer, Snellen best-corrected visual acuity, presenting intra-ocular pressure, current intra-ocular pressure, average retinal nerve fibre layer thickness via optical coherence tomography, and the number of topical anti-glaucoma medications being used. RESULTS. In these patients, there was a significant correlation and linear relationship between a poorer Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 score and a lower visual field index (r=0.3, r(2)=0.1, P=0.01) and visual acuity (r=0.3, r(2)=0.1, P=0.03). A thinner retinal nerve fibre layer also correlated with a poorer Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 score, but did not attain statistical significance (r=0.3, P=0.07). There were no statistically significant correlations for the other clinical parameters with the Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 scores (all P values being >0.7). The three most problematic activities affecting quality of life were "adjusting to bright lights", "going from a light to a dark room or vice versa", and "seeing at night". CONCLUSION. For Chinese primary open-angle glaucoma patients, binocular visual field index and visual acuity correlated linearly with glaucoma-specific quality of life, and activities involving dark adaptation were the most problematic.

Vision Health-Related Quality of Life in Chinese Glaucoma Patients

“…In multiple linear regression, binocular weighted BCVA had a significant effect on VRQOL. VA and VRQOL of glaucoma patients were shown to have a direct linear correlation [ 14 ].…”

“…The blindness rate of glaucoma was 9.04–10% [ 13 ]. Lee et al [ 14 ] investigated the association between clinical parameters and quality of life in Chinese primary open angle glaucoma patients (using the Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 Questionnaire (GQL-15)). Kong et al [ 15 ] found that the level of understanding about glaucoma was associated with psychological disturbance and quality of life (using the 25-Item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ 25) [ 16 ]).…”

Treat the patient, not just the eye pressure

“…In this study, 6 the authors found that a lower VFI correlated well with poorer GQL-15 scores and, hence, a lower QoL. The most problematic activities affecting QoL in these patients were "adjusting to bright lights", "going from a light to a dark room or vice versa", and "seeing at night".…”

“…The study by Lee et al 6 represents a nice attempt to address these issues. Firstly, the authors translated the Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 questionnaire (GQL-15) into traditional Chinese via a careful back-translation procedure.…”

Impact of initial topical medical therapy on short-term quality of life in newly diagnosed patients with primary glaucoma

“…[ 24 ] Lee et al have published that both visual field index and visual acuity have a linear correlation with glaucoma-related QoL. [ 25 ]…”