Visual Functioning and Health-related Quality-of-Life are Compromised in Patients with Uveitis

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the vision-related (VR) and health-related (HR) quality-of-life (QoL) of patients with uveitis.

Methods: In total, 60 patients with uveitis, 81 patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR), and 70 healthy subjects completed the National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire and the Medical Outcome Study 36-Item Short Form.

Results: Patients with uveitis reported lower HR- and VR-QoL than healthy subjects (p<0.05) and lower VR-QoL (p<0.001) than patients with DR. For patients with uveitis, multiple linear regression analyses indicated that lower HR-QoL scores were predicted by younger age (p<0.01), while lower VR-QoL scores were predicted by poorer visual acuity (p<0.001), ocular comorbidities (p<0.05), and female sex (p<0.05).

Conclusions: Patients with uveitis have significantly poorer VR- and HR-QoL than healthy control subjects. Uveitis has a more debilitating impact on VR-QoL than DR.

Keywords: Diabetic retinopathy; ocular inflammation; quality-of-life; uveitis.