This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Glaucoma patients' quality of life affected before symptoms show

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

BUENOS AIRES — In contrast to traditional belief, measurable quality of life declines for glaucoma patients even when patients are asymptomatic, one physician reported at the Advances in Glaucoma International Symposium.

Ivan Goldberg, MD, reported data from a prospective, cross-sectional study of 121 glaucoma patients compared with a control group. These data, which consisted of visual exams and quality of life questionnaire scores, showed that although patients do not show obvious signs of either visual field loss or Snellen visual acuity deficiencies, glaucoma may already be interfering with their functional lives.

"Patients with mild glaucoma appear to be asymptomatic and may not report vision-related difficulties to us," Dr. Goldberg said. "But compared with controls, if you ask [patients] the right questions, even they are experiencing significant reductions in quality of life."

Using the 100-point quality of life questionnaire, the researchers looked specifically at four factors: central and near vision; peripheral vision; vision in darkness and adjustment to glare; and outdoor mobility.

The researchers found mean summary scores of 22 points for mild glaucoma patients, 30 points for moderate glaucoma patients and 40 points for severe glaucoma patients, which were all statistically significant differences between patient groups. Additionally, for each factor measured, the hindrance to functionality was on average significantly worse for glaucoma patients compared with the control group.

Dr. Goldberg suggested that early diagnosis is critical for preventing visual disability and said glaucoma specialists should consider using a questionnaire routinely to understand what each individual patient is experiencing.

"On diagnosis, there is an immediate stress factor, which reduces quality of life in knowing that you have a disease that may blind you and that your quality of life in fact falls more rapidly across the spectrum of disease than hitherto thought," he said.