Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The impact of visual symptoms on the quality of life of patients with early to moderate glaucoma

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Ophthalmology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the visual symptoms and to determine the impact of visual symptoms on vision-related quality of life (QoL) in patients with early to moderate glaucoma.

Methods

A retrospective, hospital-based, cross-sectional study was conducted from July 1 to August 31, 2014, at a university referral center. A total of 176 patients with early to moderate glaucoma underwent a comprehensive ocular examination, including Humphrey visual field testing. The patients were divided into six groups based on visual symptoms that could be verified by forced-choice questions. Vision-related QoL was assessed by the Korean version of the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire 25 (K-NEI-VFQ-25). We compared the mean deviation (MD) and questionnaire scores among the groups.

Results

Of 352 eyes, 107 (30.4%) were symptomatic. The most common visual symptoms were partial blurring (15.91%), followed by a missing part (7.67%) and a black part (5.97%) of the image. The symptomatic groups (blurred part and missing part) had a significantly worse MD than the asymptomatic group. The symptomatic groups tended to have more visual field defects than the asymptomatic group. The overall NEI-VFQ-25 score in the symptomatic group (black part) was significantly lower than that in the asymptomatic group. Similar effects were observed for other subscale scores, including social functioning, mental health, role difficulties, dependency, and peripheral vision.

Conclusions

Vision-related QoL may be severely compromised in glaucoma patients with visual symptoms. Patients with visual disorders should be evaluated for glaucoma and QoL.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Allingham RR, Damji KF, Freedman SF, Moroi SE, Rhee DJ, Shields MB (2012) Shields textbook of glaucoma, 6th edn. Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, p 177

    Google Scholar 

  2. Crabb DP, Smith ND, Glen FC, Burton R, Garway-Heath DF (2013) How does glaucoma look?: patient perception of visual field loss. Ophthalmology 120:1120–1126

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Hu CX, Zangalli C, Hsieh M, Gupta L, Williams AL, Richman J, Spaeth GL (2014) What do patients with glaucoma see? Visual symptoms reported by patients with glaucoma. Am J Med Sci 348:403–409

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Nelson P, Aspinall P, O’Brien C (1999) Patients’ perception of visual impairment in glaucoma: a pilot study. Br J Ophthalmol 83:546–552

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Gutierrez P, Wilson MR, Johnson C, Gordon M, Cioffi GA, Ritch R, Sherwood M, Meng K, Mangione CM (1997) Influence of glaucomatous visual field loss on health-related quality of life. Arch Ophthalmol 115:777–784

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. McKean-Cowdin R, Wang Y, Wu J, Azen SP, Varma R, Los Angeles Latino Eye Study G (2008) Impact of visual field loss on health-related quality of life in glaucoma: the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study. Ophthalmology 115(941–948):e941. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2007.08.037

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Noe G, Ferraro J, Lamoureux E, Rait J, Keeffe JE (2003) Associations between glaucomatous visual field loss and participation in activities of daily living. Clin Exp Ophthalmol 31:482–486

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Parrish RK 2nd, Gedde SJ, Scott IU, Feuer WJ, Schiffman JC, Mangione CM, Montenegro-Piniella A (1997) Visual function and quality of life among patients with glaucoma. Arch Ophthalmol 115:1447–1455

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Heo JW, Yoon HS, Shin JP, Moon SW, Chin HS, Kwak HW (2010) A validation and reliability study of the Korean version of national eye institute visual function questionnaire 25. J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 51:1354–1367

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mangione CM, Lee PP, Gutierrez PR, Spritzer K, Berry S, Hays RD, National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire Field Test I (2001) Development of the 25-item National Eye Institute visual function questionnaire. Arch Ophthalmol 119:1050–1058

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Sawada H, Yoshino T, Fukuchi T, Abe H (2014) Assessment of the vision-specific quality of life using clustered visual field in glaucoma patients. J Glaucoma 23:81–87

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Kolker AE (1977) Visual prognosis in advanced glaucoma: a comparison of medical and surgical therapy for retention of vision in 101 eyes with advanced glaucoma. Trans Am Ophthalmol Soc 75:539–555

    PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Aspinall PA, Johnson ZK, Azuara-Blanco A, Montarzino A, Brice R, Vickers A (2008) Evaluation of quality of life and priorities of patients with glaucoma. Investig Ophthalmol Vis Sci 49:1907–1915

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Wolfram C, Lorenz K, Breitscheidel L, Verboven Y, Pfeiffer N (2013) Health- and vision-related quality of life in patients with ocular hypertension or primary open-angle glaucoma. Ophthalmologica 229:227–234

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Haymes SA, Leblanc RP, Nicolela MT, Chiasson LA, Chauhan BC (2007) Risk of falls and motor vehicle collisions in glaucoma. Investig Ophthalmol Vis Sci 48:1149–1155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Nelson P, Aspinall P, Papasouliotis O, Worton B, O’Brien C (2003) Quality of life in glaucoma and its relationship with visual function. J Glaucoma 12:139–150

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Takahashi G, Otori Y, Urashima M, Kuwayama Y, Quality of Life Improvement C (2016) Evaluation of quality of life in Japanese glaucoma patients and its relationship with visual function. J Glaucoma 25:e150–e156. doi:10.1097/IJG.0000000000000221

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Asaoka R, Crabb DP, Yamashita T, Russell RA, Wang YX, Garway-Heath DF (2011) Patients have two eyes!: binocular versus better eye visual field indices. Investig Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52:7007–7011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Crabb DP, Viswanathan AC (2005) Integrated visual fields: a new approach to measuring the binocular field of view and visual disability. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 243:210–216

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Musch DC, Niziol LM, Gillespie BW, Lichter PR, Janz NK (2017) Binocular measures of visual acuity and visual field versus binocular approximations. Ophthalmology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2017.02.013

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Soonchunhyang University Research Fund.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Korea

    Young Shin Kim & Myeong Yeon Yi

  2. The Glaucoma and Cataract Center of Nune Eye Hospital, Seoul, Korea

    Young Jae Hong

  3. Department of Ophthalmology, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, 170 Jomaru-ro, Wonmi-gu, Bucheon, 14584, Korea

    Ka Hee Park

Authors
  1. Young Shin Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Myeong Yeon Yi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Young Jae Hong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ka Hee Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ka Hee Park.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The all authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 597 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kim, Y.S., Yi, M.Y., Hong, Y.J. et al. The impact of visual symptoms on the quality of life of patients with early to moderate glaucoma. Int Ophthalmol 38, 1531–1539 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-017-0616-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-017-0616-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation