Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr;30(2):186-195.
doi: 10.1080/09286586.2022.2084756. Epub 2022 Jul 17.

Gender Differences in Visual Functioning Questionnaire Scores among Patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Sophia Sidhu  1 , Anne M Lynch  2 , Naresh Mandava  2 , Niranjan Manoharan  2 , Marc T Mathias  2 , Jennifer L Patnaik  2
Affiliations

Gender Differences in Visual Functioning Questionnaire Scores among Patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Sophia Sidhu et al. Ophthalmic Epidemiol. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Purpose: To examine gender differences in visual functioning using the National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire-25 (VFQ-25) in a Colorado cohort of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using a registry of AMD patients who attended the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center (2014 to 2019). Demographic, clinical, and image data were collected, and AMD was categorized as Early/Intermediate AMD, or unilateral/bilateral neovascular (NV) AMD, geographic atrophy (GA), or Both Advanced using the Beckman Classification. Each patient completed the VFQ-25, which evaluates visual functioning, generating a composite score and subscale scores for vision-specific activities. Univariate and multivariable general linear models were used to estimate the associations between gender and VFQ-25 scores with parameter estimates (PE) and standard errors (SE).

Results: Among 739 patients with AMD, 294 (39.8%), 115 (15.6%), 168 (22.7%), and 162 (21.9%) were diagnosed with Early/Intermediate AMD, GA, NV AMD, and Both Advanced, respectively. Adjusted for AMD classification, age and habitual visual acuity in the better-seeing and worse-seeing eyes, female gender was not significantly associated with lower composite VFQ-25 scores (PE (SE): -1.2 (0.9), p = .193), and was significantly associated with reportedly worse ocular pain and driving subscale scores (PE (SE): -4.6 (1.0), p < .0001 and -9.1 (2.1), p < .0001, respectively).

Conclusion: Gender plays a role in reported driving activities and ocular pain among patients with AMD. This may need to be accounted for in future research related to the use of VFQ-25 for AMD.

Keywords: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD); NEI VFQ-25; gender; visual functioning.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
VFQ-25 Composite Score by gender and AMD classification.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
VFQ-25 Driving Subscale Score by gender and AMD classification.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Chakravarthy U, Wong TY, Fletcher A, et al. Clinical risk factors for age-related macular degeneration: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Ophthalmol. 2010;10:31. doi: 10.1186/1471-2415-10-31. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pennington KL, DeAngelis MM. Epidemiology of age-related macular degeneration (AMD): associations with cardiovascular disease phenotypes and lipid factors. Eye Vis (Lond). 2016;3:34. doi: 10.1186/s40662-016-0063-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jager RD, Mieler WF, Miller JW. Age-related macular degeneration. N Engl J Med. 2008;358(24):2606–2617. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra0801537. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fine SL, Berger JW, Maguire MG, Ho AC. Age-related macular degeneration. N Engl J Med. 2000;342 (7):483–492. doi: 10.1056/NEJM200002173420707. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ferris FL 3rd, Wilkinson CP, Bird A, et al. Clinical classification of age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmology. 2013;120(4):844–851.doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2012.10.036. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources