Differences in low-vision questionnaire administration can affect scores

For patients with low vision, the way in which visual function questionnaires are administered to them can affect the way they respond, according to a pilot study published in the Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development. The timing of the questionnaire's administration, as well as whether the directions consider use of low-vision devices, can influence sensitivity for measuring patients' quality of life, the study authors said.

Joan A. Stelmack, OD, PhD, and colleagues compared changes in patients' self-reported health-related quality of life after their participation in Blind Rehabilitation Center programs at Veterans Administration facilities in Arizona and Illinois.

Patients in both programs completed the National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire, but the researchers at the center in Illinois modified the directions to consider the use of low-vision devices.

For patients in Arizona, Dr. Stelmack and colleagues found that interval person-ability and item-difficulty scores were the same prior to rehabilitation and at 3 months post-rehabilitation. For patients in Illinois, investigators found an improvement in both scores when questionnaires were administered immediately after rehabilitation. When the same questionnaire was administered by telephone 3 years later, only the improvement in the difficulty item measure was maintained, however.